Favorite Fictional Characters, #394: Hank Palmer

Ironed Shirt Man

The Judge came out in 2014, perfectly timed to coincide with the apex of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No, the film isn't a Marvel movie, though a viewer could be forgiven for watching Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance as Hank Palmer and thinking Tony Stark had wandered into a John Grisham story. RDJ's Hank shares no inconsiderable DNA with his billionaire playboy ironclad counterpart, most obviously the rapid-fire verbal patter and a penchant for both charming and alienating everyone around. Hank Palmer is a lawyer, see, and a good one, particularly skilled at entrapping and intimidating adversaries with his quick wit and quicker tongue. The only soul he truly fails to impress or bewitch is his father, the legendary and curmudgeonly Judge Joseph Palmer.

Therein lies the pathos of the narrative. Hank is a prodigal son, an adolescent fuckup who ruined his brother's nascent pitching career and clashed with his too-rigid, too-similar father while punching his way out of his po-dunk Indiana hometown. Hank was destined for a faster, richer, sexier life as a big-time Chicago attorney, and he never even glances in the rearview window. Years later, of course, with his marriage on the rocks, Hank returns to Indiana to mourn the death of his mother. Amidst the family grief and friction, his father uses his car to murder a scumbag he had once put away and has just been released. Now, Hank is forced to stay in Smallville to defend his dad, who doesn't want defending. Drama ensues.

The Judge is an engrossing tale, if a moderately predictable one, richly embroidered by heavyweight performances from Downey as the son and Robert Duvall as the father. Hank's frustration that his father never loved him and the Judge's frustration at his most talented son's failures produces fireworks amidst an acting masterclass between the two. It's fun to watch Downey fully inhabit the kind of character he does best, smart and cocky and painfully aware that he could and should somehow be doing more than he is. Hank Palmer spent his life resisting the siren song of living up to his father's immense shadow, and who can blame him? Shadows and fathers can be hard things to escape.