October 17, 2014 -- This film stars a couple of famous Bobs, Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr., and they light up the screen in this film about a father and son who have a very difficult relationship with each other. While the story is not unusual in its basics, it is very well acted and the characters, carrying lots of emotional baggage, are fully fleshed out. This is a case where it is much more important who the story is about than what the story is about (to loosely paraphrase the late, great critic Roger Ebert).

Robert Downey Jr. (the “Iron Man” movies) plays Hank Palmer, a very successful attorney with a very flexible set of morals when it comes to helping his guilty defendants evade justice. Just after a run-in with an angry prosecutor (played by David Krumholtz of the “Numbers” TV series) he received a phone message that his mother has died. As his own marriage is falling apart, he packs up and heads home to a small town in Indiana, where his father has been a judge for over 40 years. He hates going there. His father (Duvall) barely acknowledges him.

He is getting ready to leave to go back to Chicago when he hears that his father is under suspicion of homicide in a hit and run accident the previous night. He goes back to take over his father's legal defense. During personal arguments with his father and legal arguments in the courtroom, the reasons for the strained relationship between father and son are finally laid bare.

Many other critics hate this film, and it does have its shortcomings: Too many coincidences in the story, too many drawn-out arguments outside the courtroom and not enough courtroom drama. Too much is made of Hank's relationship with his old flame, the ultra-hot Samantha Powell (Vera Farmiga of “Up in the Air”). On the other hand, Hank's relationship with his daughter, Lauren Palmer (well played by Emma Tremblay of “The Giver”) is refreshingly warm. His relationships with his brothers Glen and Dale (Vincent D'Onofrio and Jeremy Strong of “Lincoln”) are also well realized in the film.

While there should have been more courtroom scenes, the courtroom scenes that are in the film are well played. While Hank is a great lawyer, he is up against a very tough opponent in big city lawyer Dwight Dickham (very effectively played by Billy Bob Thornton who doesn't lean on his usual mannerisms in this performance, and his performance is also quite subtle in places). The heart of the film is the relationship between father and son, and this is where the film gets most of its dramatic power.

This is a film that is well cast, and director David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) gets solid performances out of that fine cast. While the story could have been tighter, it has plenty of emotional and dramatic power. This film rates a B.

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