Let me start by saying that I am one of those people who sees a Matthew McConaughey movie and pretty much sees/hears nothing but David Wooderson (BAHA!) from Dazed and Confused. "Party at the moon tower...hey, hey watch the leather, man!" Not to mention that I'm pretty sure he signs autographs by spelling his last name phonetically-Matt Mick-Con-Oh-HEY!-but, let me be straight up when I say this, I think The Lincoln Lawyer may be the best role I've seen him play. I really think he's had other good roles, such as U571, Contact, Amistad, A Time to Kill and in particular I love Reign of Fire (shut up!) and Sahara, but this one...this was just a very raw performance. Very gritty. I think he's aided by how the film is shot-shakey hand cams and close-ups on his very stressed out, watery, bloodshot and emotive eyes. In addition, since he plays a father there's something fiercely protective about how he comes across, especially in the latter half of the film when things start to unravel considerably.Now, in a random twist of normalcy, I haven't actually read the source material for this movie. I kind of wanted to, but now that I've seen the film I think it might be a bit unnecessary. Not that I didn't get what the twist was based on the trailer, but there were some other things that happened that I wasn't exactly expecting, so if I read the book I'm sure I'll either be underwhelmed since I already know what happens or I'll be annoyed if the movie took too many liberties, and I like this movie too much to risk that ruckus.
McConaughey plays lawyer Michael "Mickey" Haller, a very experienced yet somewhat shady defense attorney who works from the backseat of a baller old school Lincoln Town Car. He has a daughter with his ex-wife, Maggie and she (naturally!) is an ADA. Cute. Maggie is played by the wonderful Marissa Tomei (who bears a striking resemblance to Amy Ryan in some of the film's scenes which was odd but kind of awesome). It's clear that they once loved and still love each other quite a lot, but despite it all, they're just never going to be able to agree and therefore a separation-with-benefits is probably the best thing for their daughter.
In the beginning of the film, Mickey picks up a big payday client from a delightfully nerdy John Leguizamo who is his go-to case man. He introduces him to Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) who immediately starts freaking out about being in jail and crying innocence. Mickey takes Roulet's case to the tune of $100,000 upfront and $550 per hour plus separate expenses for his investigator (nice!). There's a particularly awesome scene outside the county jail when Mickey swindles the Roulet family attorney out of a cool grand.
Of course though, things are not always as they seem, and as Mickey begins his research to prepare for his defense of Roulet he begins to uncover things that make him very wary of the man he's representing. The shift in the tone of the film is very subtle, yet very poignant. McConaughey goes from being easy breezy to taut and vicious and weathered in a matter of minutes. This added layer of grittiness is what really surprised me about the film. Even the way certain scenes are shot adds to the tension and you begin to feel really paranoid in the theater about how things might turn out.
For his part, Phillippe is out-freaking-standing. His performance definitely rivals that of Ed Norton in Primal Fear (the roles are similar). But, he slips from confused-scared-richy-business-kid to sociopath-smooth-criminal-bastard so easily it's frightening. The transition isn't slow either. He goes from prey to predator in one, excellently executed scene.
From there, the film really, really soars. I found myself feeling an almost physical need for Phillippe (and bonus points to Francis Fisher for playing his mother in a delectably freakish way) to have the book thrown at him, yet you knew Mickey couldn't do anything to fuck up the case because he himself could be sued and prosecuted and potentially disbarred.
Oh! And before I forget to mention it, Josh Lucas is also in this film (insert giggly laughter here for the two of them being in a movie together) and portrays the ADA facing off against Mickey during Roulet's case. Mickey runs legal circles around him, but in the end you know he'll get his man. In addition, Michael Pena cameos as a prisoner from one of Mickey's former cases (I won't explain his connection to the case at hand, because it's very predictable yet still plays incredibly well on screen. His transformation is a sight as well.)
Needless to say, there is a very clever, lawyerish ending to the film which also has an uplifting (if not bordering on cheesy) full-circle final scene that will leave you with a nice taste in your mouth and a very satisfied feeling.
It's April now, and while I'm not fully caught up on the movies I wanted to see due to a week-long parental unit visit, I have to say that this is the best movie I've seen all year. Rango is a close second, but this was just a fantastically executed film. The cast was superb, the writing very real and the pacing pretty much spot on. I didn't feel like the film dragged anywhere or wasted words or scenes, everything in it had a purpose, something it needed to achieve plot-wise yet it didn't feel forced or out of character.
We went to this movie really just to get out of the house for a couple hours and were very happily surprised at it's quality. Honestly, even if you're not a McConaughey fan, you need to see this, because he does a good job at getting you to reconsider your opinion. I enjoyed the hell out of it. If you liked Primal Fear or you just like legal movies and thrillers this is wholly worth your time.
