TIFF 2014: ROBERT DOWNEY JR. SAYS HIS OPENING FILM “THE JUDGE” WILL STICK WITH YOU AND REMIND OF YOU OF PRESTIGE MOVIES OF THE PAST

Hollywood heavyweights Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall kick off this year’s Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 4 with The Judge—a film that’s become a labor of love for Downey Jr.

Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall lead a cast of Hollywood heavyweights in this tough and rousing drama about the searing clashes that carve a rift between father and son — and the unexpected crisis that may just help to bridge it.

In the movie, Downey Jr. plays slick Chicago defence attorney Hank Palmer who, after returning to his Indiana hometown to bury his mother, a greater upheaval is presented. Hank’s father, Judge Joseph Palmer (Duvall), stands accused of murder, alleged to have run down a former defendant whom he failed to convict, and who later committed a heinous crime. Despite their bitterly dysfunctional relationship, Hank agrees to take his father’s case. But he is up against a formidable opponent in Dwight Dickham (Billy Bob Thornton), the local prosecutor who knows how to use Judge Palmer’s reputation against him. The ensuing trial is an electrifying display of lawyerly ingenuity and familial tension.

Speaking to the Toronto Sun, Downey Jr., whose production company Team Downey (created with wife Susan), produced the film along with Warner Bros., remained humble about his performance in the film. “I won’t speak about my performance in it but I showed up and I was honest and I was diligent and every day I raced home to get in a chair with Exton and rock him to sleep. It was just a monastic, loving celebration of this great story we got to tell. But, in seeing it now, if I could just take myself out of the equation, it’s one of the better movies I’ve seen in some time and I think that’s what you want to feel and everyone will have their own opinion and we welcome it. But it’s nice.”

Downey Jr, along with critics already hailing it a great film, says the film is a throwback to older movies that had some real meat to them and stick with you for a long time. “It opens some valves and, all of a sudden, they just flow because it’s all beyond my perception of my own ‘story’ and it’s just really kind of a multi-tiered thing.Also, it’s the movie where my wife said: ‘I think there’s something here. It think it would be a really corrective experience for you to play this guy.’ Consciously, I was saying: ‘Sure, I’ll throw the Old Lady a bone.’ And then it would up being just this amazing thing!”

“The Judge” also stars Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard and Billy Bob Thornton. The Warner Bros. film will open the festival on September 4.