Movie review: The Lincoln Lawyer

Matthew McConaughey, fifteen years after he came out of nowhere to star in the John Grisham adaptation "A Time to Kill," returns to his roots in "The Lincoln Lawyer," another movie based on a popular legal novel.

Coming not from Grisham but rather a Michael Connelly book, the movie is in many ways a throwback to the myriad adaptations of Grisham novels that appeared annually throughout the 1990s.

Directed by second-timer Brad Furman ("The Take"), who seems to have learned everything he knows about directing from cop shows like "Homicide" and "The Shield," 'Lincoln Lawyer' is a first-rate legal thriller for its first two thirds, before going off the rails at the end.

McConaughey's protagonist, the multi-book Connelly hero Mickey Haller, is known as the Lincoln Lawyer, not because of anything having to do with Abraham Lincoln, but rather because he drives a Lincoln, which doubles as his office.

A savvy but generally low-rent attorney, the character is just enough of an alcoholic that we can tell it cost him his marriage, but not enough of one to affect his work or cause him to lose any audience sympathy. 

Haller, for reasons that are mysterious at first, is asked to defend Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe), a wealthy family's scion who stands accused of raping and assaulting a prostitute. He certainly looks guilty, but maintains his innocence.

There are a couple of twists, which I won't spoil, except to say that what appears to be the plot's central mystery is solved much earlier in the movie than you would expect, leading into a virtuoso courtroom sequence that reminded me of the great ending of the Grisham film "The Firm."

It's the lawyer protagonist, using legal procedure rather than, say, a gun or his fists, to thread a needle and triumph. I was impressed how much of the plot hinged on legal and ethical considerations.

And that courtroom scene is where the movie should've ended. Except it doesn't- indeed, "The Lincoln Lawyer" has about five endings when one would've sufficed. Even worse, we get two different scenes that are far afield from what the movie is actually about, turning it from a legal thriller into just a generic thriller thriller, and a brilliant legal film into just an okay one.

The film's greatest strength is its cast. It's been joked that McConaughey sometimes disappears into "all right, all right, all right" mode, and that continues here - he indeed, at one point, says "all right, all right, all right." But he's entirely believable in the role, as is Phillippe as the defendant. Marisa Tomei turns up as a prosecutor who doubles as McConaughey's ex-wife, while Josh Lucas is on hand as a lawyer who's significantly overmatched in court opposite Haller - a nod, perhaps, to Lucas' much-noticed failure to become a McConaughey-type leading man.

There's also William H. Macy, and John Leguizamo, and Michael Pena ... the cast is so deep, in fact, that the best actor currently working on TV, "Breaking Bad"'s Bryan Cranston, is about the ninth banana, in a small but very enjoyable role as a cop.

"The Lincoln Lawyer" isn't as good as the best of the Grisham movies, but is a much better film than the 2007 Anthony Hopkins/Ryan Gosling film "Fracture," which went off track about an hour earlier in its running time.

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The Silver Screen Rating: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

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Roll Credits: The Lincoln Lawyer

Directed by: Brad Furman

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, Josh Lucas, William H. Macy, John Leguizamo,

Rated: R

Length: 1 hr. 59 min.

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Showing at:

Regal Marketplace 24 - 180 Mill Road, Oaks, PA

1:30pm 2:00pm 4:20pm 4:45pm 7:10pm 7:40pm 9:55pm 10:25pm

Carmike Coventry 8 - 650 West Schuykill Road, Pottstown, PA

1:05pm 4:05pm 7:05pm 9:45pm