BY SERA ULUSOY (MAN/IV) sera.ulusoy@ug.bilkent.edu.tr
During the upcoming couple of weeks, you may get tired of reading film reviews in my column. Hence I would like to warn you beforehand, since you may want to avoid it if you are not really a movie enthusiast.
But you have to back me up here. It’s March, and it’s right after the major movie awards. And on top of it all, given that most of the award-winning films are released at a later time in Turkey, we have yet to see some of them, which makes me even more curious about the upcoming movie frenzy.
This week, though, I won’t be focusing on any of the award-winning films, and I won’t be discussing how exceptionally unique an actor Benedict Cumberbatch is, or how “The Imitation Game” is probably one of the best movies ever released, or how Miles Teller should have been nominated for his part in “Whiplash.” Instead, I want to talk about “The Judge,” a movie that wasn’t nominated for any of the major awards but to date has achieved great success at the box office—probably due to its amazing cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga and Billy Bob Thornton.
I’ve realized that I have recently been watching those seemingly dramatic and tragic types of movies that nonetheless encourage the audience to find hope in every aspect of life, to pursue their dreams and make use of the second chances granted to them. “The Judge” was yet another one of those movies, similar to the book “This Is Where I Leave You,” although I have to admit that “The Judge” is darker in regard to its content, and far more depressing.
The film revolves around a father—Judge Joseph Palmer, portrayed by Duvall—and a son—Hank Palmer, an incredibly successful criminal lawyer, portrayed by Downey— who happen to be reunited after possibly the most tragic time in both their lives, when Hank and his brothers lose their mother and the judge, his wife of a lifetime. On top of it all, Judge Palmer turns out to be accused of murdering an ex-convict he had sent to jail but who has gotten released way earlier than he should—after all, he had killed his girlfriend for wanting to break up with him by drowning her.
For most of the movie, you watch without actually knowing whether the judge was the killer or not, which is why I am going to reveal the truth. We learn halfway through the movie that the judge is indeed the killer, but not for the reasons you think, or at least not exactly the reasons you think—it is revealed that he really does not have any recollection of what happened on the night of the murder. We see that the judge is actually suffering from occasional blackouts—not that he faints, but his mind goes blank and he cannot remember his actions for a period until he regains full consciousness. And no, it is not due to what you presume he is suffering from. It is not Alzheimer’s, but rather a side effect of the medicine he has been taking for his late-stage cancer, which illness he hides from everyone until Hank realizes the truth.
When I said “a father and son reunion” above, I lied. Well I didn’t lie, but the process I’m describing was not easy at all. Sure, there was that reunion part, and this bonding scene in the movie where you feel relieved to see that Hank and Joseph finally get some peace, but you realize that these are indeed the final moments for someone—incredibly sad, right? So you must be wondering, what made me think of this film as a “tragic and yet hopeful movie full of second chances”? You see, what happens in the movie is revealed at the end to be a blessing in disguise for Hank, for the most part at least. He learns how to be a human being who is not afraid to show his emotions—sure, he is a great lawyer, but he is also occasionally accused of being insensitive to others. We later learn, though, that this is not entirely his own fault, but partly his father’s.
I feel like I have already revealed too much about the movie, so I would like change the subject slightly to talk a little bit more about the brilliant Robert Downey Jr. and how much fun it always is to watch him act. Honestly, I believe he is one of the most underrated actors of his generation. He is beautiful, obviously, but there is something about his witty persona that makes you believe he is indeed the Iron Man or Sherlock or Steve Lopez or Chaplin or Kirk Lazarus—his character from “The Tropic Thunder,” for which he received an Academy Award nomination. It literally feels as though he encompasses every single one of these characters, and more, inside him—it is as though he had lived in Conan Doyle’s era, and has been to the future and back, so great is his incredible wit and charisma.
Of course, though, you cannot neglect admiring how genuinely realistic Duvall’s portrayal of the judge was. I cried several times for about ten minutes in total during the movie, and each time it was because of how incredibly real and heartfelt Duvall and Downey’s scenes together were. There is this court scene toward the end of the movie in which everything is revealed to the audience, and the father and son are practically forced to have the most heartfelt talk they have ever had in their lives, in front of a courtroom full of at least fifty people. If you do not at this point cry or at least shed a tear or two, I will presume that either you have lost your human feelings, or else simply did not understand what was going on there.
Above all, though, by the end of the movie you feel as though a weight has been lifted off your shoulders and you have let go of every crumb of anger, every grudge, or whatever it is that you have been holding onto against anyone you love in your life. It makes you realize, once more, that life is too short to spend it with anger and hate built up inside you. I am not going to say that I recommend you watch the movie, because I wouldn’t have written about it otherwise.
Have a great week, everyone!