Movie Review: The Judge

While The Judge was a smartly constructed and incredibly well-acted, the film's running time was utterly excessive that it almost felt like a lengthy trial in itself. I found the pacing decidedly slow, especially the first half, and it had too many meaningless distractions that it lost the story it had set up. The romantic subplot, in particular, was unnecessary and awkward. The screenplay could've been a lot better, to be honest, but the solid acting of the two leads buoyed this otherwise predictable courtroom drama. Robert Downey Jr. gave an excellently layered performance, and Robert Duvall was just brilliant with a fantastic sensibility to his performance. The supporting cast was a little underused, but I digress. Oh, and the cinematography was awesome. The Judge obviously wasn't perfect, but it's engaging, more complex than I expected, and nuanced. 7