Robert Downey Jr. can do no wrong...right?
In his latest film The Judge, the 49-year-old actor plays a big city lawyer who returns to his small hometown in Indiana for his mother's funeral. While there, he discovers his estranged father, a local judge played by Robert Duvall, is facing a murder charge. RDJ's character reluctantly comes to his father's defense in the courtroom, but not without stirring up some drama from the family's past.
The majority of critics are sold on Downey and Duvall's performances, but they're divided when it comes to the content of the comedy/drama. USA Today's Claudia Puig calls the judge "well-acted, with some occasional moments of clever dialogue," but finds the story to be "plodding, predictable and tension-free."
Moira McDonald of the Seattle Times writes, "You wish it were better. But The Judge, eventually, wears its viewer down, despite the best efforts of an irresistible cast."
The A.V. Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky takes issue with The Judge's "over-familiar material" and "popular stereotypes about small-town life" that make it "seem inauthentic and unspecific." Vishnevetsky notes, though, it's "Duvall and Downey's movie to carry," writing, "For the most part, both actors are doing shtick—Downey as the sarcastic and self-aware charmer, Duvall as the straight-talking, but emotionally distant, old codger—but it's so well developed, with both making the most of their signature cadences, that it rarely matters. Sometimes, as in a scene where Hank finds his father collapsed in the bathroom, they even get to act."
Rotten Tomatoes took the average of several reviews to give The Judge a 46 percent "fresh" rating—meaning 54 percent of critics chose the "rotten" option instead. The critics consensus? Per Rotten Tomatoes, "Solidly cast and beautifully filmed but thoroughly clichéd, The Judge seems destined to preside over a large jurisdiction of the basic cable afternoon-viewing circuit."
The Judge hits theaters Friday.