Movie Review: The Judge..can’t decide what kind of case it wants to be

A few years ago, there was a beautiful albeit slow paced movie of a man caught in circumstance – The Descendants. Other than the unfitting ending it had, majority of the movie managed emotions and their portrayal quite well. For the first 35 minutes or so The Judge follows a similar path. The crucial difference is that while The Descendants had a very natural progression to the storyline, The Judge literally flies off in 15 different directions – leaving you completely bewildered at what the movie wants to showcase in the first place

The beginning of The Judge is promising and up to a point the movie was crackling – brimming with possibilities – rarely have I seen such strong emotions and under-currents so well portrayed in a family drama movie. Till suddenly, they just fizzled out completely – vanishing into thin air. What seemed a story around unresolved and understated conflicts in relationships, suddenly became a father son relationship, no sorry a murder trial, or wait a story about growing old with some kind of a love story thrown in as well – till its simply all over the place and you can only wonder what thread they’ll pick up next

As in the case with The Descendants, the writing is good and there is many a quip and smart remark that will make you chuckle and sometimes laugh out loud. But throughout the watch, the focus of the movie is not clear. You begin to think its about the murder trial and you settle in to go through the evidence and witness the testimonies when the director suddenly seems to zip past all that as if its not really the crux of the matter. The case itself isn’t that great and the arguments presented could easily be trumped by any of the episodes of Boston Legal. As the movie reaches its unsatisfying climactic moments, you are disconnected and disappointed and couldn’t care less what the final verdict is – just that the jury can make up its mind soon and you can get out of the theater

Robert Downey Jr. in a multi-faceted role looks the part though he is too suave to seem vulnerable. Robert Duvall plays his part well too, though I thought the relationship of these two characters which should really be the soul of this movie, is not well etched out. That said, largely due to the talents of the two actors - moments of the duo bickering, challenging each other and exhibiting that rare moment of emotional outburst, form some of the best moments in the movie.

The Judge promises an interesting case with a lot that is said and left unsaid in its earlier moments – but the follow through falls much short and the multiple threads don’t help matters. The mounting evidence in the wayward nature of the narrative convinces you that nobody really thought this through while making it and that The Judge deserved better representation and a more focused plot presentation.

Movie Review: Haider..well made but long drawn

 Length or movie runtime is a crucial element. Keep it too short and you can’t get the audience to connect with your characters and the story development. Stretch it too long however, and you lose the audience’s interest despite having a good story to tell. That is principally the issue when you settle in to watch a movie like Haider, which would otherwise have been a very well made movie

Two hours and forty two minutes – enough to put a doubt in anyone’s mind. However, with the panache of Vishal Bhardwaj and a high quality cast of characters, one still soldiered on to witness this adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the beautiful valleys and snow capped façade of Kashmir.

The first half of the movie is slow but the build up is nice. Some of the directorial sparks like when Shahid’s character returns and his response of utter denial are great to watch. Coupled with that, the writing has some real gems for dialogues and the grim scenery is so well captured that you get involved, if not deeply so. The undertones and background score remind you of Kamineyy and especially the snazzy touch at the time of intermission has you all excited for bigger things to unravel in the second half.

Unfortunately, little of that ever ends up happening. Once the movie is over you actually wonder whether this was itself the ‘chutzpah’ of a kind that the movie so famously brandishes and the joke’s really on you. Don’t get me wrong, this movie is miles ahead of Matru ki bijlee and definitely picks up where Maqbool left off. Despite being an adaptation, Bhardwaj throws in quite a few instances that make you wonder if there are any twists to the adaptation itself. Nice touch, but at the end of it all it’s the length of the movie that does it in. Not helping matters, there are some disjointed sequences and what flowed earlier in one smooth harmonic motion, now seems to have lost the plot and is wandering aimlessly looking for some direction.

The starcast makes a valiant effort – Tabu playing the highly complicated character she always does in these movies with all her skill and Shahid maintaining great screen presence if a tad unconvincing in the longer dialogues and emotional affairs and the trustworthy KK Menon notching up another feather in his illustrious cap. Shraddha Kapoor’s presence is limited as unfortunately is the case with with Irrfan Khan who seems to have a dynamic character but perhaps made for another movie – given all the screen-time its been given.

Perhaps, some of the fault for how it all plays out lies in the original tale, with Shakespeare tragedies all having weak heroes. Whatever the case, such as it is, despite the performances, great writing and mostly good direction - the tale fails to engage beyond a point and you are left just counting the minutes till its really all over.