Reviewed
by Lamar Kukuk
4/2/11
In
a perfect world, some movies would really delight you because they hit
you where you live in one way or another, and the rest would be solid entertainment
because, while they don't make a special connection with you, they remain
efficiently plotted, acted and executed. I feel like I used to see
a lot more movies that weren't special but were simply good to the bone,
while now I'm more likely to come out of them trying to decide whether
the parts I loved or the parts I hated carried that day. The Lincoln
Lawyer, an adaptation of the first of Michael Connelly's novels about
attorney Mick Haller, hearkens back to those bygone days of well-mounted
mainstream entertainment for non-fanboys, a time before crime-solving seemed
to become the exclusive province of procedural dramas on CBS. The
role of Haller fits Matthew McConaughey like a glove, and he and villain
Ryan Phillippe generate solid cat-and-mouse tension. A great cast
delivers good work across the board, and The Lincoln Lawyer is consistently
entertaining from beginning to end with nary a speed bump in the ride,
even if it never particularly soars.
Mick
Haller (Matthew McConaughey) is a slick defense attorney who works out
of the back of the titular vehicle, chauffeured by his loyal driver Earl
(Laurence Mason). Bail bondsman Val Valenzuela (John Leguizamo) introduces
him to a big fish client, Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe), the son of a wealthy
real estate saleswoman (Frances Fisher) who stands accused of assault with
a deadly weapon in the beating of a prostitute (Margarita Levieva).
Louis wants a quick trial and demands to take the stand in his own defense,
ferociously maintaining his innocence. Based on his version of the
story, Mick quickly formulates a theory that the whole case is a
setup to allow the “victim” to cash in with a civil lawsuit after Louis
is convicted. But one hole after another appears in his story as
Mick's investigator Frank Levin (William H. Macy) digs deeper, and soon
unavoidable parallels to one of Mick's old cases emerge. Years earlier,
he persuaded Jesus Martinez (Michael Pena) to plead out for a life sentence
in a prostitute's murder despite the defendant's insistence he was innocent.
Could this beating be an aborted attempt at another killing by the same
man? And if so, just what is Louis' game?
McConaughey
is so unnaturally handsome and confident that he's become closely identified
with roles as oily bastards we're supposed to love. And while he's
gotten mixed up with a fair number of romantic comedy scripts over the
years that have asked him to make me sign off on some really unlikable
clods, Mick Haller is a perfect fit for him. Not the kind of man
to worry too much about the guilty going free, he has the saving grace
of being VERY concerned about those rare cases where he defends the innocent,
and his reaction to the retroactive revelation that he didn't get justice
for Jesus allows us to feel OK about watching him live unrepentantly large
the rest of the time. He's a fun character I wouldn't mind at all
watching on one of those CBS shows.
The
cast is rock-solid across the board. Phillippe excels at making Louis
believable without being particularly likable while he protests his innocence,
and then just well-matched enough with Mick intellectually that it feels
like a real win every time our hero scores a point against him. I
also enjoyed the interplay between McConaughey and Josh Lucas as the slightly
overmatched Prosecutor who keeps stumbling into the traps Mick sets for
him in the courtroom. Pena nails a single scene that helps to set
the movie's stakes, and pros like Macy, Fisher, Marisa Tomei, Bob Gunton
and Bryan Cranston effortlessly flesh out this world.
How
much of the plot comes from Connelly and how much from screenwriter John
Romano, I cannot say, but The Lincoln Lawyer is unusually tight
for this sort of legal thriller. Once Louis has entered into an attorney-client
relationship with Mick, there's never a moment when our guy thinks about
violating his ethical obligations, which would be the central conflict
of most movies with the same setup. Instead, he takes a certain pleasure
in doing the dance his client/adversary has chosen, determined to come
out on top. You don't see that many movies where the lead is the
hero because he's the smartest guy in the story, and Mick's respect for
his oath as an attorney even while he shows little regard for the law makes
him a very interesting guy to watch.
Director
Brad Furman shows a preference for the tried-and-true over the flashy,
and lets his actors do their work. It's among the many ways The
Lincoln Lawyer is pleasantly retro, even besides the fact that the
time when a new John Grisham adaptation hit theaters every 10 weeks is
now very long ago. It's a solid, well-made movie that should delight
fans of its star and genre and keep just about everybody else happy.
No complaints here. |
