The Lincoln Lawyer (2011– 118 mins) M. McConaughey, R. Phillipe, WH Macy, M. Tomei 

“The Lincoln Lawyer” is about a lawyer, Mick Haller (McConaughey) who has the unconventional business practice of using his car (THE LINCOLN!— oh how clever) as his office. As with most courtroom drama’s he’s a pretty savvy lawyer and is good at what he does. Unlike most lawyer movies though he’s a complete scumbag. He’s not a likable guy and he only thinks of himself and money first. Haller then gets a big payday case dropped right into his lap. Big time rich boy/playboy/realtor Lousi Roulet is accused of raping a prostitute, in which he claims he is completely innocent. Plenty of things come up with his own investigation which make Haller question everything in his own life and the story of the accused playboy.

So being based on a book, there is naturally a ton of things I am sure they had to leave out for time and content sake. The problem with that sort of thing, is you end up with a ton of holes in the story that you have to either fill in yourself or handle with a passing comment. It’s not too much of a hole with LL but it seems that we are lead to believe that Haller is a complete jerk but about half way through the movie we forget about that, and then at the end are reminded a bit to just give us that nudge of hey look it’s also a growing in character story for him. I didn’t mind as much but it seems like a complete oversight on the screenplay writers to do the bait and switch a few times in the film. Don’t take that too much of a bad thing b/c the movie is entertaining. The story is a good courtroom drama, and satisfies you in that manner. However, unlike some of those courtroom dramas, say like “Few Good Men” or to stay with McConaughey “A Time to Kill” where in those we would love to see other cases with these lawyers in them, here with “The Lincoln Lawyer” we are fine with being done with Haller. We are happy to see the move over and how it ends and all, but we have no desire to see him again.

There are a ton of good bit parts and cameos in the movie, and everyone does a good job. Tomei is beautiful as ever as Haller’s ex-wife, Macy does his usual supporting thing well as his private eye, Josh Lucas as the A.D.A prosecutor, John Leguizamo as a bail bondsman, Bryan Cranston as a detective trying to convict the world of everything… the list goes on and on. I wasn’t disappointed with anyone’s performance, just a tad with the story as a whole.

Verdict–> A good watch and a decent movie. Not something I am going to run out and buy, but with the drying up of quality at the red box right now, I say it’s definitely one of the better newer movies in it currently. Pick it up if you like court dramas b/c as far as those go it’s a good original one at that. Not a bad movie for a comedy/drama double feature on a date night.

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