Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

“Sleazy, but likable” is the term I would use to describe Matthew McConaughey’s protagonist in The Lincoln Lawyer, who is indeed, as the title describes, an attorney who works out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car. From the get-go, it is clear that this is McConaughey’s most engaging work in years–maybe ever–even though Mick Haller is hardly a deep fellow. The actor commands the screen with a scene-chewing, cocky swagger that is magnetic enough to make the audience forget about the inexplicable premise that he’s a rich white man with a Southern drawl who lives in an almost exclusively Mexican neighborhood of Los Angeles — no small feat. The reason the performance excels, I suspect, is because it plays off of who we assume McConaughey really is. I, for one, have never believed him as the good ‘ol boy he plays in romantic comedies like Fool’s Gold and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days; it just doesn’t jive with his public persona. While many would argue that McConaughey’s inability to disappear into a role doesn’t speak favorably for him as an actor, I say you play to your strengths. And McConaughey’s strength is playing characters similar to who the world perceives him to be, as we have seen in 13 Conversations About One Thing and Tropic Thunder and, hell, even Frailty: sleazy, but likable.

While McConaughey’s charisma excuses his character’s somewhat improbable choice of neighborhood, it is unfortunately nowhere near enough to forgive the silliness of the rest of the movie. While The Lincoln Lawyer offers solid performances across the board, from McConaughey to Marisa Tomei to Ryan Phillippe to William H. Macy to Michael Peña and more, the programatic legal-thriller plot could not be any more grating. The log-line is this: Mick is recruited to defend Louis Roulet (Phillippe), a slick young heir with a deceivingly squeaky-clean record, who has been accused of brutally assaulting a prostitute. Needless to say, all is not as it seems. I love plot twists, but there aren’t actually many in The Lincoln Lawyer. Instead, as if he realized there aren’t any original third-act reveals left in this tired genre, screenwriter John Romano (adapting from a novel by Michael Connelly) simply complicates the story to the point of obfuscation. The final 45 minutes of the film consist of Mick performing one isolated action after the next, as the audience watches on begrudgingly, realizing it will all add up in one final epiphany. The approach creates a sense of severe impatience in the viewer… and not because they can’t wait to find out what will happen. In truth, they are annoyed that they have to pay attention to every boring detail so they can at least claim they “got it” in the end. What a payoff.

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The Lincoln Lawyer (2011, USA). Produced by Ted Gidlow, David Kern, Sidney Kimmel, Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg, Scott Steindorff, and Richard S. Wright. Directed by Brad Furman. Written for the screen by John Romano, based on the novel by Michael Connelly. Starring Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Peña, and Laurence Mason. Distributed by Lionsgate. Rated R, with a running time of 118 minutes.