First Trailer for THE JUDGE

Director David Dobkin is entering uncharted territory with The Judge. The director whose claim to fame is Wedding Crashers and who has since gone on to make Fred Calus and The Change-Up is looking for something a little more enlightening, a little more artistic and just all-around more credible in his latest. The trailer for The Judge certainly speaks to each of these ambitions and if it didn't over-play the score that forces us to feel like this will me some triumphant championing of courage, family and love it might really hit home. The good news is that it does indeed look beautifully shot and there is some damn fine talent in front of the camera that will hopefully distract from this studio approved, seemingly contrived conventions towards which this trailer largely plays. Of course, this could all very well be slight misdirection as I'm sure Robert Downey Jr. isn't going to just sign up for anything in his free time away from playing Iron Man and so while the trailer makes this look more melodramatic than I expected I can't help but think the final product might be something a little deeper and more authentic with a very well-planned and beautifully constructed composition from Dobkin. All of that said, this tale of a broken father/son relationship and the strain time and distance (both figuratively and metaphorically) have put on them will land the focus and weight of this film squarely on the heads of Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall. Both seem to be in fine form here and the dynamic between them looks to be reason enough to see the film. The Judge also stars Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, Dax Shepard, Melissa Leo, Leighton Meester, Ken Howard, David Krumholtz, Balthazar Getty, Denis O’Hare and opens in theaters on October 10th.