The Lincoln Lawyer


3/4

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Philippe, Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy

Rated R for Some Violence, Sexual Content, and Language

In the early 90’s, John Grisham was the hottest thing to hit the literary world, and Hollywood bought the film rights to as many of his books as they could.  Although “The Lincoln Lawyer” is not based on a Grisham novel (it’s based on one by Michael Cooney), it does bring back memories of the likes of “The Rainmaker” and “The Firm.”

Mick Haller (McConaughey) is a hot-shot lawyer who does business from his Lincoln towncar.  Divorced from his ex, Maggie (Tomei), Mick takes anyone as a client, as long as they can afford his large fee.  Now he has been asked to defend Louis Roulet (Philippe), a young man who is accused of brutally beating a prostitute (Margarita Levieva).  Louis claims he was framed, and he won’t take any deals.  It’s already going to be a tough case, but then something happens that causes Mick to question everything.

There’s an important twist that happens at the one hour mark that while not necessarily a spoiler, it could be construed as such.  Thus, I will tread lightly.  No angry e-mails if you figure it out (I knew it previously, and believe me, there are many twists that come after it).

Matthew McConaughey, having played a defense attorney in “ATime to Kill,” is no stranger to this sort of thing.  The curly-haired actor has a very limited range, but when he’s within that narrow window, he can be effective.  He’s solid as a man who not only has a crisis of conscience, but is caught between a rock and a hard place.  Because of the circumstances, there’s a lot more at stake than is usual for this sort of thing.  Ryan Philippe is also no stranger to playing characters who stay on the dark side of morality (he was terrific in “CruelIntentions”).  Surprisingly, though, Philippe is merely adequate.  Marisa Tomei, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas and John Leguizamo provide solid support in small roles.

The problem is that this film is often confusing.  There seem to be missing scenes everywhere.  Still, in broad strokes, the film is easy to follow, but not when it comes to details.  There are so many characters and so little screen time is spent with them that it’s likely that one will forget who is who, and more importantly, how they relate to each other.  Although this is already relatively long at two hours, twenty more minutes of fleshing out would have been welcome.

Still, for those who miss great legal thrillers, this isn’t a bad way to spend two hours.

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