Robert Downey Jr is perfect as Hank, an arrogant shark of a lawyer forced to return home when his mother dies. At the funeral, his frosty relationship with estranged father Judge (Duvall, playing an actual judge) is left hanging and unexplained, like Chekhov’s gun. But when Judge is charged with murder, that gun is cocked, and a series of volcanic confrontations, revelations and court-room confessions suggest no-one may get out alive.
The scenery becomes victim number one, because goddamn if Duvall and Downey don’t chew it all up. Charismatic but vulnerable, Downey captures both the serrated wit and wavering defence mechanisms of a man slowly losing control. Hank’s mule-like stubbornness is a trait inherited from Judge, and Duvall is exceptional as a prideful individual who finds it easier to pass sentences than offer forgiveness. Sharp, intimidating but also frail in age and circumstance, Judge refuses to ask for help, and Hank would never offer – but it’s desperately needed and silently given. As the two men accuse, cross-examine, punish and defend each other in equal measure, Downey and Duvall hit some stunning moments of familial complexity. As tornadoes howl, tears fall and truths are hurled like knives, it’s often easy to forget they’re acting.
However, David Dobkin never stops directing for a second, and the strain shows. The Wedding Crashers helmer overdoes the moody lighting, the manipulative score, the incest-themed comic subplot (a terrible misjudgment). Indulgent pacing and eye-rolling sentimentality undermine the story’s power – but nothing can get in the way of those steamroller performances.