Features > Movie Reviews > The Lincoln Lawyer…

A split screen montage of a classic 70s American cruiser – the Lincoln of the title – nosing through LA traffic as Bobby Bland lays down “Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City”. Very cool.

The desaturated visuals, the grain, the song, the car, they all hark back to the stylishly downbeat thrillers of the Nixon era – or at least to Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. And in the midst of all this: Matthew McConaughey looking more than ever like Paul Newman’s kid brother as slick, streetwise defence lawyer Mick Haller.

This is a guy whose vanity plates read “NTGUILTY”; a guy whose first courtroom action is to set back a client’s trial indefinitely because he’s still waiting for the second five grand he was promised. I’m not a big McConaughey fan – in fact I hated A Time to Kill with a passion I find hard to explain – but ten minutes in, I’m loving this movie. And McConaughey seems absolutely in the groove. He can be an infuriatingly laid back actor, but when a role tickles his ego he’s magnetic.

It’s not all about McConaughey though. The dialogue (John Romano out of Michael Connelly’s novel) is snappy and sharp, and director Brad Furman (The Take) keeps things moving smoothly and confidently. He seems to be in good hands.

He’s assembled a pretty good cast too, with Marisa Tomei as Mick’s DA ex wife, William H Macy as his investigator/sidekick, and supporting bits and pieces from Josh Lucas, Michael Pena, Frances Fisher and John Leguizamo. This is a cast assembled by someone with an eye for good acting.

Mick’s client – a rich kid who swears he didn’t assault and attempt to knife that girl – is played by Ryan Phillippe, a bit of a lightweight but an actor whose good looks and aura of entitlement are a good fit with the character.

It’s not really his fault that the movie falters a bit when Phillippe enters the frame. There’s no way to tell the story without going into competing flashback mode, a structural device we’ve seen so many, many times over the years it can’t help but drain the movie of its snap.

The plotting is ingenious but, again, in such a popular genre as the courtroom mystery thriller writers are forced to ever more preposterous machinations to keep the thing feeling fresh – that freshness requires a mighty large pinch of salt.

I’m going to let you discover what it’s about for yourself – unlike the trailer, which gives away half the story. But the comparison that comes to mind is Fracture, with Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins. This doesn’t have that level of high stakes brinksmanship from the leads, but it does work as a similar, sinister battle of wits.

In the end, The Lincoln Lawyer is too implausible to stick in the mind, but if you’re hungry enough for a decent thriller to swallow a plot hole or two, it’s goes down nice and easy.