March 21, 2011 -- Matthew McConaughey has had a checkered career. At times, he's looked like a great romantic lead in movies like “Contact” and at other times he's done the buff action hero thing (“Reign of Fire”) but all too often he's chosen some bad scripts and ended up in box office flops like “Sahara,” “Surfer, Dude” and “Fool's Gold.” In his latest film, however, he's picked a winner playing a sleazy lawyer with a heart of gold in “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

In this slick legal thriller, McConaughey is surrounded by good actors and he has a great script to work with. McConaughey gets a pitch down the middle and he doesn't miss. He hits it out of the park. He carries this movie about Mick Haller, a sleazy lawyer who is played for a patsy, but is smart and slick enough to turn the tables on the powerful forces arrayed against him. Haller is the kind of lawyer you love to hate. He uses every trick in the book to help bad guys escape capital punishment, prison and jail time. He is the kind of guy who gives lawyers a bad name. In order for this movie to work, however, you have to feel some sympathy for Haller and believe that he wants to do the right thing when he discovers he sent an innocent man to prison a few years ago.

Haller is inexplicably hired to represent a wealthy client, Louis Roulet (played by Ryan Phillipe of “Stop-Loss.” Haller's usual clients are drug dealers, prostitutes, gang members and the like. A bail bondsman, Val Valenzuela, (John Leguizamo of “Rage”) claims that he influenced Roulet to hire Haller. Roulet's wealthy mother, Mary Windsor (Frances Fisher of “The Roommate”) doesn't want Haller to represent her son, but Roulet insists. Almost too late, Haller realizes why he was chosen by Roulet to defend him against charges related to the brutal beating of a prostitute, and the reason isn't a good one. Haller's trusted investigator, Frank Levin (William H. Macy of “Wild Hogs”) is murdered and Haller is framed for the crime in the middle of Roulet's trial, and that isn't nearly the worst part of the trouble Haller finds himself in.

In addition to Macy and Leguizamo, McConaughey is joined by Marisa Tomei, who plays Maggie McPherson, a prosecuting attorney and Haller's ex-wife, completing the heavy hitters among the acting talent in this film. There is a nice twist or two in the screenplay by John Romano (“Intolerable Cruelty”) and it builds plenty of suspense too. The story is based on a novel by Michael Connelly and it compares well to the best John Grisham legal thrillers. This film rates a B+.

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Copyright © 2011 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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