The Judge

After ten years playing edgy superheroes and oddballs, Robert Downey Jr returns to the real world with the kind of slick, mainstream Hollywood vehicle he was on track to make in the first place, before sobriety issues bumped him momentarily from the A-list. The good news is that Downey sparkles in the story of a smooth-talking, big-city lawyer who finds himself defending his estranged father (Robert Duvall) - the respected small-town judge of the title - on a hit-and-run murder charge after returning home for his mother's funeral. The bad news is that he (not to mention Duvall) deserves a much better showcase than this, a sentimental father-son story that builds towards, but then fumbles, a potentially gripping courtroom drama, while a cast of heavyweight supports, including an on-form Billy Bob Thornton as the silver-fox prosecuting attorney, stand around with little to do. It bodes well for Downey's post-Iron Man future, but, sadly, in this case, the promised sparks never fly.