Hotshot Chicago defence lawyer Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr), who specializes in getting off wealthy bad guys, goes back to his small Indiana hometown for his mother’s funeral, leaving behind his daughter and his betraying wife. He spars with his stern judge father Joseph (Robert Duvall), a decrepit old 72-year-old geezer with failing memory and advanced colon cancer. Older brother Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio) is a high school baseball star who grow into a failure. At 17 delinquent Hank caused a car accident that cost Glen his 90 mph fastball. Younger bro Dale (Jeremy Strong) spends his life making Super 8 family films. Hank also meets high school girlfriend Samantha (Vera Farmiga), whose law student daughter may be Hank’s unknown lovechild. The judge is charged with murder for the hit and run death of an ex-con who murdered a young girl after the Judge was lenient on his earlier trial for assaulting her. To defend his alienated father Hank replaces the local hick (Dax Shepard) and takes on another polished outsider, the prosecutor Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton).
Questions
- Why is Hank made a — shall we say pragmatic? — defense lawyer instead of a prosecutor?
- On his trip home why are we shown Hank driving his Ferrari, flying, driving and driving a rental SVU?
- Consider the narrative’s framing shots. Before we meet Hank an opening montage introduces his family by their emblems: the judge’s glasses and newspaper, Glen’s ball, mitt and trophies, Dale’s camera and film cans, mother Mary fatally tending her “fucking hydrangeas.” The last shot poises Hank between his father’s chair and hat. What’s being said?
- How does the film draw on the lead actors' personae? e.g. Duvall from Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, The Great Santini, etc., and both Thornton’s and Downey’s bad-boy reps, offscreen swagger and addictions?
- How does the film mix several genres — father/son tensions, courtroom drama, the hero’s homecoming, old romances recovered, vengeance? Does the mix — and the film’s consequent length, about which many reviewers have complained— raise a point about genre narrative itself? Can we box life into genres? Might Hank's "crystal ball" instant summary of people relate to this idea?
- Should we add “epic” to the list?
- Dwight Dickham? Really?
- Does that maybe connect to “What line were you both in when they were handing out testicles?” And the shot that follows that?
- How does Sam’s line — “I was going to be the hero of my own life” — relate to the other characters? And Mary’s death by having a “shut off heart”?
- How does Hank’s daughter reflect on the main themes?
- What’s with the candies?
- What connects to “your hyper-verbal vocabulary vomit”? Here, oddly enough, that’s apparently a negative.
- Why does the hick lawyer sell antiques? Remember, we’re talking theme here, not psychology or business sense.
- Why is the last bet over catching a “sunfish”?
- Why are Hank and the Judge given a tornado scene for their break-through confrontation?
- How does Sam’s fishing image relate to the Judge's last scene?
- What are the ethical issues in the trial climax?
- Is the Judge the only judge here? How are the others?
- The bathtub defecation scene is one of the strongest in recent years. How is it important thematically? Hint: If the tornado scene recalls the storm in King Lear might this scene evoke "the bare forked animal"?
- Does Hank go back to Chicago or move back to his hometown? Does it matter which?
Consider the following dialogue:
- Hank: Everyone wants Atticus Finch until there’s a dead hooker in the bathtub.
- Judge: You and I are finally done. Hank: Oh, we’re not done.
- Hank: My father is a lot of unpleasant things, but murderer is not one of them.
- “Nobody gives a rat’s ass about your legacy.”
- The Judge’s courtroom is the last cathedral where “You are the only one responsible for the consequences of your actions.”
- "You should be grateful grandpa has a basement."
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