The Lincoln Lawyer
Okay, so is it just me, or did other people forget, too, that Matthew McConaughey could actually act? And by “act,” I mean show up in a movie fully clothed? I’m not saying he’s Oscar-worthy in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” but needless to say, it’s the best he’s been on-screen since the 20th Century. Sure, he’s been good in “Failure to Launch,” “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” and his cameo in “Tropic Thunder,” but none of those come close to the star power he had in “A Time to Kill” or “Edtv.”
In the film adaptation of a novel by Michael Connelly, McConaughey stars as Mick Haller, a lawyer who does most of his wheeling and dealing from the backseat of his Lincoln town car. No, he doesn’t do that kind of deal; he has a driver (Earl, played by Laurence Mason) he trusts to be discreet when he deals with clients, either on the phone or in person. One day a bail bondsman buddy of his (John Leguizamo) gives him a tip on a big-money case; turns out, a young real estate agent named Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) has been arrested for brutally attacking a prostitute in her home. Louis says he’s innocent, but when Mick and his pal investigator, Frank (William H. Macy), begin digging deeper into the case, some suspicions come up for Mick that make the case a more slippery slope than he expected.
Before I get further into the movie itself, take a look at the cast I’ve mentioned thus far in this review. Whether it’s a lead like McConaughey and Phillippe or a character actor like Macy or Leguizamo, this cast is stacked, and I haven’t even mentioned Marisa Tomei as Mick’s ex (with whom he has a daughter), Josh Lucas as the prosecution in Roulet’s case, Bryan Cranston (from TV’s “Breaking Bad”) and Michaela Conlin (from TV’s “Bones”) as cops who come in on the case, and Michael Pena as Martinez, an old client of Mick’s doing life in San Quentin. It used to be that such a collection in one film was normal, but of late it seems rare that so many well-known actors are involved in the same movie (and even then, usually in obvious ensemble films like “Crash” or “Traffic”). How director Brad Furman, who has a resume of short films and only a couple of features before this, was able to assemble this much talent for the film borders on the miraculous.
It must be the source material and a screenplay by John Romano (a veteran TV writer with only story credit on “Intolerable Cruelty” and the script for “Nights in Rodanthe” to his name, feature-wise) that capture the story’s pulp, beach-reading qualities so superbly and give the cast a buffet of great material on which to feast. The film plays less like a “whodunit” and more like a “how’s-he-gonna-do-this,” as Haller must work within his profession’s code of ethics and search his conscience when Roulet’s case becomes a labyrinth of truth and danger– danger that comes with either knowing the truth or concealing it. Yes, some of the twists come out of nowhere, but watching McConaughey and Phillippe try to get out on top with everything seemingly toppling down around them is a riveting and entertaining treat. I don’t know how it compares to the book, but the movie is two hours of delicious fun.
