The one question many viewers will have before buying a ticket to “The Lincoln Lawyer” is — does Matthew McConaughey take his shirt off in this movie? That’s the purpose he’s served, it seems, in most of the successful films he’s made in the last decade. From “The Wedding Planner” to “Failure to Launch” to “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” the actor whose breakout role came in the critical favorite “Dazed and Confused” has turned into a romantic comedy regular whose pecs get him more work than his resume.
| On-screen |
| ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ |
| 3.5 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe |
| Director: Brad Furman |
| Rated: R for some violence, sexual content and language |
| Running time: 119 minutes |
It’s easy to forget that his career as a leading man started when he played a lawyer in the drama “A Time to Kill.” Now the title character in “The Lincoln Lawyer,” McConaughey might be trying to remind us that he used to be a serious actor. He only takes his shirt off once here.
The title attorney is so named because he prefers to conduct his business in his car. His lowlife clients perform their mischief all over Los Angeles, and he needs to shuttle between courthouses easily. It’s not clear why a man as charming as Mick Haller defends drug dealers and violent criminals — he’d have any jury eating out of his hand. But it seems to be one reason he’s divorced from Maggie McPherson (Marisa Tomei), a criminal prosecutor who’s also not immune to her ex’s allure.
His ship might have come in, though. Bail bondsman Val Valenzuela (John Leguizamo) sends a big-money client Mick’s way: Beverly Hills scion Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) has been accused of attempted rape and murder. The young man claims total innocence, and Mick finds his story compelling. But searching for the truth about what looks like an open-and-shut case will lead Mick to recall his biggest failure — putting a man in jail for life after getting prosecutors to take the death penalty off the table.
“The Lincoln Lawyer” is a pretty by-the-books legal thriller — the wounded protagonist loves the bottle, he’s got unfinished business with a woman, and nothing in his latest case is quite what it seems. Based on the novel by Michael Connelly — the first in a franchise — this one has crisper dialogue than most. Director Brad Furman has made an artily shot film, with judicious use of the shaky cam, that makes it more interesting to watch, too.
Truth be told, so does McConaughey. Sure, he’s working with an array of great talents here, from the even-now underused Tomei to William H. Macy as a wrinkled but enthusiastic private investigator. Phillippe seems to have only two notes, but he’s the only weakness here. Furman otherwise knows what he’s doing. He’s hired McConaughey, after all — so there are plenty of close-ups on that smile and those dimples.
