Film: The Judge

[blairmacg]

Dev and I saw "The Judge" last night.  It's brilliant.  It pulls and pushes and stabs and hand-holds in all the right places.  I expected Robert Duvall to be wonderful, and he exceeded expectations.  Pride, humility, humiliation, complex love... he was incredible.

I don't know what I expected from Robert Downey, Jr., but it certainly wasn't anywhere near the fabulous performance he gave.  Too often, films of great emotion dip into melodrama.  Downey, even though he played a character striving to be larger than life, used whispers and asides and subtlety.

It was also one of the most difficult movie-watching experiences I've had in some time.  There are scenes that hit grief, regret, and longing for second chances.  Again and again, the film took hold of my heart, broke it, and refused to let go.  To be more specific would spoil the film, so...

There is a scene of Duvall struggling to reach the bathroom before he vomits, then losing control of his bowels. Both Dev and I flinched, then leaned toward each other because it mirrored what his father struggled so with during his last weeks. We sat during the credits, making half-sentence comments that the other could finish. Then we talked about grief and missing his Daddy and second chances on the way home.

Go see it.  Then be kind to those you love.