In The Judge, Robert Downey Jr. stars as big city lawyer Hank Palmer, who returns to his childhood home where his estranged father, the town’s judge (Robert Duvall), is suspected of murder.

Hank sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

The film is a tale that is constantly pulling at heartstrings.

It is refreshing to see Robert Downey Jr. outside of his role as Iron Man and he knocks it out of the park in this movie as an incredibly sarcastic, hot-shot lawyer with a troubled past.

Along with Downey Jr., Robert Duvall is phenomenal in the role of Joseph Palmer, a stubborn, no-nonsense local judge who is respected throughout the town but has a broken relationship with his son. The chemistry between these two actors is so powerful that they make the viewer disregard the somewhat cliche themes throughout the movie.

The scenes involving Palmer’s trial are so engaging that they make the two hour run time flow seamlessly. I never got bored with the movie at any point because I actually wanted to know the outcome of the trial.

While many critics would disagree with me, I was thoroughly interested in the father/son drama that made the trial scenes more dramatic. I would describe this movie as an emotional roller coaster, considering I was on the verge of tears in one scene but then I found myself laughing moments later. The Judge molds comedy and drama in such an odd but effective way.

The lack of fluent transitions from sad to funny made the movie feel more realistic as it successfully captured the randomness of events in everyday life and how they can have such an impact on our emotional state.

The movie has flaws though. There are certain scenes that do not need to be in the movie as they depict certain characters doing completely illogical and strange things.

For example, there is a scene in which Robert Downey Jr.’s character, who is a lawyer, breaks into a restaurant window to impress his love interest Samantha (Vera Farmiga) the night before he defends his father in a murder trial. He is a lawyer who is about to defend his father in a court of the law, yet he thinks it would be fine if he breaks and enters into private property.

Later in the scene, Samantha reveals that she owns the restaurant and let him break in because she thought it would be funny. The irrationality of some of the characters took me out of the movie at some points. Despite a few out of place scenes and some cliche elements, I really enjoyed this film.

I cannot stress how incredible Duvall and Downey Jr. are in this heartwarming movie. For me, a good film is one that makes me empathetic towards the characters and care about what will happen to them. I can happily say that despite some minor flaws, The Judge was emotionally captivating and overall a good film.