The Lincoln Lawyer
Brad Furman
The story: Rakish small-time lawyer Mickey Haller (Matthew McConaughey) operates out of his Lincoln sedan. When rich playboy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) is accused of assaulting a young woman, it is Haller whom he asks for. But there is more to the case than meets the eye. The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.
Have they run out of John Grisham legal thrillers to adapt?
In the mid-1990s, there was practically a film a year based on his bestsellers including The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise, The Pelican Brief (1993) starring Julia Roberts and The Rainmaker (1997) featuring Matt Damon. Indeed, Matthew McConaughey’s first major film role was as a lawyer in the John Grisham adaptation, A Time To Kill (1996).
But interest waned after a while with diminishing box- office returns and Hollywood has now turned to award- winning American author Michael Connelly for inspiration.
Director Brad Furman and scriptwriter John Romano have fashioned a competent adaptation from the source material and The Lincoln Lawyer is engaging for the most part.
McConaughey’s roguish charm is put to good use as the slightly shady defence attorney who is so jaded by what he does that the only thing he fears is an innocent client.
He is a decent person at heart, though, and the audience knows this because he is still on friendly terms with his ex-wife (Marisa Tomei) and he tries to do right by his young daughter.
The film draws you in as Haller goes about uncovering the truth and he winds up in a legal and moral quandary when he finds out why Roulet had specifically picked him.
There is also some smart casting here. Ryan Phillippe’s pretty-boy looks can sometimes work against him in roles but in this case, they add to Roulet’s inscrutability. In smaller roles, William H. Macy is reliably solid as a gruff investigator for Haller and Tomei brings some warmth and earthiness to the thankless part of the ex-wife.
While the climactic courtroom scene is suitably satisfying as Haller finds a way out of his conundrum, the film is not quite done yet. The tying up of loose ends feels too neat and convenient and a late-in-the-game revelation is not completely convincing.
Actually, what the film does is to make you appreciate even more legal television series such as The Good Wife which have to come up with a new premise every week.
While there is some legal jargon bandied about on The Lincoln Lawyer, anyone who has read crime thrillers or watched TV series about lawyers would be familiar with concepts such as attorney-client privilege.
It only goes to prove that there is indeed rule of law when it comes to the world of entertainment.
(ST)