By surprise on Netflix, I found a 10-year-old movie that didn’t light up properly back then, directed by David Dobkin, who gave us the bright-sky “Wedding Crashers” 2005.

Dobkin has re-emerged on Netflix with “The Judge,” starring Robert Downey Jr. as a cynical, brilliant, but emotionally troubled Chicago trial lawyer named Hank Palmer, who, at the moment, is dealing with a divorce from his cheating wife (Sarah Lancaster). He returns to his childhood small town of Carlinville, Indiana, to attend his mother’s funeral, always a setting for turmoil.

The big surprise here is the performance of his co-star, Robert Duvall, who was nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for his role as Hank’s father, a tough but beloved local judge who, in the middle of the funeral arrangements, is arrested and tried for a rainy night drunk driving accident that killed a local troublemaker.

Arriving home at the outset of these tragic moments, Hank joins his older brother, Glen (Vincent D’Onofrio), who once had a promising baseball career that was halted by a car accident that involved Hank, who, can you believe it, was put in juvenile detention by his judge father.

Jeremy Strong has a touching few moments as the judge’s autistic youngest son. He’s worth more than this.

What could Arthur Miller have done, do you think, with such a family?

So here comes the judge, accused and put on trial for killing a local man on a rainy night while under “the influence” of what? Booze, powerful drugs he was taking, what?

A bumbling local lawyer (Dax Shepard), six months out of night law school, is assigned to the town’s greatest case and, of course, vomits daily before appearance.

Finally, with much paper work shuffling, that which we knew was coming … comes.

Hank gets himself assigned as Papa’s attorney. We understand Downey’s reason for taking this part, a Chicago attorney returning to his hometown as Clarence Darrow. Well, not that grand, but it’s always a good time when Downey gets the light.

It won’t end there. The Judge has secrets that fill the old courtroom just in time.

It won’t end there either. Another death in the family, as Arthur Miller would show us, provides the tears.

“The Judge” is full of small but annoying happenstances like flies on a nice cake, but there are the performances by Duvall, Downey, and, delightfully, Vera Farmiga, who, as Samantha Powell, Hank’s ex-girlfriend and owner of the local diner, seems to age, as they say, gracefully.

D’Onofrio, always waiting for his big return, fills the dark corners as always, satisfying us.

A quiet, evil faced (of course) big name lawyer (Billy Bob Thornton) has a few moments with a few lines and goes on to be a bigger, darker man.

Dobkin’s handling of this cast must have been a joy. But then, how can you miss with this cast?

I enjoyed the film. But then, how could I miss with this cast?

“The Judge” is streaming on Netflix.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.