This is a tough one because on the one hand, I should be thrilled to watch a movie clearly made for adults (there’s been a grand total of 9 of them this year) and there’s not a zombie or superhero in sight, but the movie also isn’t very good. Do you give Robert Downey Jr. points for finally shedding his Iron Man armor a little bit or do you call him out for being such a sellout in the first place?
What Works: The idea of three Roberts (if you count Billy Bob Thornton) squaring off in a courtroom setting is an appealing one, and the best scenes usually involve the realistic father-son tension between Downey Jr. and Duvall or a courtroom showdown. Plus, Dax Shepard (of all people) plays a totally different type than what we’re used to seeing from him, and proves to be just as adept at playing earnest Midwestern dork as California slacker.
What Doesn’t: The movie tries to be four things at once—a courtroom thriller, a mystery, a domestic drama, and a boy returns to his small-town dramedy—and winds up really succeeding at none of them. The central mystery is never remotely involving, and a lot of the courtroom scenes feel like B-plots from an old Boston Legal episode. Still, those elements excel compared to the slack pacing of the “I’m back in small-town Indiana from Chicago!” guy returns home stuff. This is the exact kind of movie where Downey Jr. falls off his bicycle (I’m not kidding) and you just know that his small town ex-girlfriend-turned-love-interest (a slatternly Vera Farminga, realistically playing the kind of single-mom Downey Jr. should run back to Chicago to avoid) will drive by at that exact moment.
The movie isn’t surprising or engaging enough to justify it’s two and a half hour runtime. Plus, largely squanders Billy Bob Thronton in a supporting role, and Duvall’s hard ass judge is never really likable enough to justify the sympathy the movie wants us to have for him.
What I Would Have Done Differently: It needs a good editor and a better plot, but the larger problem? I’m not sure what attracted Downey Jr. to this material in the first place or why he picked this as his first dramatic role in years, but I hope the “experiment” doesn’t scare him off. A movie of this size would have been considered huuuuuge for him during his druggy, uninsurable low-days, so it’s a little disappointing that it seems like he’s slumming it in a movie that doesn’t cost 200 million to make. It’d be great to see him reunite with James Toback and make the world’s highest profile art film, but I don’t hold my breath for that happening.
Great review. Will probably go see the movie.