Reel Critics: The verdict? ‘The Judge’ is worth seeing

“The Judge” is a classic character study of two complex men forced to return to their family roots. Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr. create a memorable look at a father-and-son crisis situation.

Duvall plays a small-town Indiana judge known to everyone in his community. Downey is his hotshot attorney son practicing law in Chicago.

Both men are highly successful. But the contempt they have for each other boils over when they meet at the funeral of Downey’s mother and Duvall’s wife of many decades.

Incidents from their past relationship are revealed as old-time friends and family members interact. The obvious sentiments are offset by a welcome touch of humor throughout the screenplay.

The plot then enters traditional courtroom-drama territory. The judge is charged with murder for running down a local thug recently released from prison. The legal mystery evolves with Downey compelled to represent his estranged father.

The story unfolds a little too slowly at times, but is always interesting. The crackling dynamic and exceptional skills of these two great actors is the real reason to see this film.

—John Depko

*

‘Messenger’ tells too little

Jeremy Renner plays a real-life investigative reporter in “Kill the Messenger,” an earnestly crafted drama that just misses the mark to be so much more.

Back in 1996, Gary Webb wrote a series of articles for the San Jose Mercury News that linked major Nicaraguan drug trafficking in the U.S. — with tons of it sold in L.A. as crack cocaine — to the CIA as a means to fund the Contras.

Webb’s story broke to widespread shock and acclaim as possibly the biggest news story since Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal for the Washington Post. Yet almost immediately, it seems there was concern among larger metropolitan newspapers (including the Post and the Los Angeles Times) about the accuracy of Webb’s story, and various citizens’ groups put their own spin on it entirely.

“Messenger” features an impressive cast in very small roles: Barry Pepper, Andy Garcia, Michael Sheen and Ray Liotta among them, as suspense and paranoia begin to build.

Renner is solid as a man ready to dig deeper into this scandal and stunned to find he has become the bigger story. While Webb had his flaws like any man, the ripple effects his articles had on his personal and professional life are pretty shameful.

Yet it’s disappointing that the filmmakers did indeed “Kill the Messenger” in choosing to follow a formulaic hero biopic, when they should have told us more about this almost too-impossible-to-be-true conspiracy. To paraphrase that famous line in “All the President’s Men” — they should have followed the money. That would have made a helluva movie.

—Susanne Perez

JOHN DEPKO is a retired senior investigator for the Orange County public defender’s office. He lives in Costa Mesa and works as a licensed private investigator. SUSANNE PEREZ lives in Costa Mesa and is an executive assistant for a company in Irvine.