Heartbreaking father-son story

MANILA, Philippines - If the sins of the father are said to be visited upon the son, what of the sins of the son? That’s the enigma Warner Bros. Pictures’ new drama The Judge tries to address.

Slick Chicago lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) is set to pluck his latest white-collar client from the State of Illinois’ prosecutorial clutches when he receives a message that his mother has just passed away. Hank has no contact with his dad, and his mom is the one person in his family — in his entire hometown — with whom he had remained in touch for the past 20 or so years. She is the only one, her death the only event, that can draw him home. What waits for him in idyllic Carlinville, Indiana, however, is much more than a memorial service, and far from a warm welcome. And before he can make his escape, Hank is called back to defend his own estranged father, the town’s venerable judge of 42 years, who suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the bench.

Pairing acting heavyweights Downey and Robert Duvall for the first time, the film seeks to explore the role reversal we all face, whether through emotion or circumstance, of having to parent our aging parents and come to terms with our own personal history.

Duvall plays the tough-as-nails judge Joseph Palmer. He says he readily signed on because “it was a smart script, very well written with wonderful characters — definitely an actors’ film.

Downey praises his co-star, “I learned a lot from watching him just be so still and yet so commanding.

Duvall admired the younger actor as well, citing, “He’s very, very talented, and he was relaxed and in control of both his performance and his off-camera work as a producer, so it was a pleasure for me.”

(Opening across the Philippines today, The Judge is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.)