Courtroom dramas seem to have been primarily relegated to television as of late. While I’ve found enjoyment in shows such as “The Practice” and the first season of “Boston Legal,” most of these television series don’t really do it for me. I like my courtrooms in feature length form such as film like Witness for the Prosecution, A Few Good Men, The Verdict and A Time to Kill. While The Lincoln Lawyer can’t stand alongside any of those films it is still a decent watch, even if it has more twists and turns than any movie I can remember ever seeing and it isn’t exactly all that inventive.
Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) is a fancy pants Los Angeles playboy and he’s suspected of raping and beating a prostitute. Matthew McConaughey plays the smooth talking lawyer Mick Haller, a role tailor made for the oft-shirtless Texas native.
To Mick’s surprise, Louis, a man he’s never met or heard of before, has requested him as his lawyer. Why? Ah ha, a plot point! We’re off…
The Lincoln Lawyer is based on Michael Connelly’s novel of the same name and from what I have been told it has even more twists than this pretzel of a film. This is probably why things tend to feel a bit rushed as screenwriter John Romano (Nights in Rodanthe) had a lot he needed to get through in order to wrap this thing up and boy does he stumble along the way. Not to mention the lawyering in this flick isn’t exactly top shelf, at least not in dramatic terms.
Nothing exciting comes out of the courtroom as each witness called to the stand plays right into Haller’s defensive scheme. Josh Lucas, playing prosecuting attorney Ted Minton, just needs to go through the motions in most instances, digging his hole deeper no matter who he’s questioning. The problem this creates is that a lot of what’s going on becomes routine and, quite frankly, inconsequential. If the audience is so far ahead of the story that the plot developments come as little surprise the process needs a second look.
The problem is that so much is packed into this one two hour film that not enough time is dedicated to the individual pieces. Films like this rely heavily on deception and with so much going on there’s never time to give the audience options to consider, instead it’s all laid out on the table very early on.
One thing Romano could have done with the script was cut out Marisa Tomei’s character entirely. Tomei plays a prosecutor that has a daughter with McConaughey and since the importance of creating something of a family dynamic in Mick Haller’s life is rather transparent, adding Tomei’s character to the mix is pretty much a waste. The daughter is more than enough.
What I could have used more of, however, was William H. Macy as Haller’s private investigator Frank Levin. I think it’s plainly obvious McConaughey is a perfect fit for this kind of a role, just as he was in A Time to Kill, and when you match that up with Macy’s slightly aloof approach to Levin it makes for solid entertainment not to mention adds to the investigative side of the story. Macy and McConaughey together were a lot of fun to watch, but Macy doesn’t get nearly enough screen time for my liking.
Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) as Detective Lankford is also worthy of note as he rips off some solid one-liners and has a courtroom raised eyebrow reaction that’s priceless. Eric Etebari plays a slimy moron of a john whose court testimony is a comedic highlight. And Michael Pena gives what is probably the film’s best dramatic performance.
Director Brad Furman’s flash-bang approach to The Lincoln Lawyer reminded me a lot of a Tony Scott film, though not quite as frenetic. I’d say the look of this film is Man on Fire cranked down to about a five. Set to a continuous loop of hip hop tracks there is definitely a lot of energy and it’s a fun film to be sure. It’s just got some flaws that make it hard to gush over even though I really wanted to.
