The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Directed by Brad Furman
Mick Haller is a charismatic defense attorney who does business out of his Lincoln Continental sedan. Mick spends most of his time defending petty crooks and other bottom-feeders, so it comes as quite a surprise when he lands the case of a lifetime: defending a Beverly Hills playboy who is accused of attempted murder. However, what Mick initially thinks is an open-and-shut case with a big monetary reward develops into something more sinister.
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27 films that influenced The Lincoln Lawyer
What critics say influenced The Lincoln Lawyer
Furman's movie has the throwback vibe of Paul Newman crime procedurals like The Drowning Pool and the swagger of the first installment in a continuing movie or television franchise.
The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.
For “Lincoln Lawyer” to have worked it needed to be a cross between Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” and Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.”
After all, Paul Newman had to struggle to stay sober in “The Verdict”; James Stewart had to go against a big-city lawyer in “Anatomy of a Murder.”
And the most poignant is Paul Newman's Frank Galvin - an ageing alcoholic who retrieves his self-esteem by taking on a seemingly unwinnable medical malpractice suit in Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982).
It's not exactly Sidney Lumet's The Verdict, nor does it re-invent the wheel of its particular sub-genre, but who says it needs re-inventing in the first place?
What he does do is both clever and plausible, thanks to Connelly’s cunning plotting and John Romano’s sure-handed script (a great leap forward after “Nights in Rodanthe” and “Intolerable Cruelty”).
Gary Lucchesi produced "Primal Fear" early in his career, and one can see what drew him to John Romano's (“Intolerable Cruelty”) adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel with its similar plot about the client who acts like innocence personified before revealing the depths of depravity.
Adapted by screenwriter John Romano (whose anemic earlier credits include the Richard Gere-Diane Lane sudser Nights in Rodanthe and the Coen brothers’ aptly titled Intolerable Cruelty), the movie has a revved-up narrative engine and the snappy banter to go with it.
What follows are the usual twists and turns, but under the direction of Brad Furman a fun and thrilling watch ensues, backed by a great screenplay by John Romano (Intolerable Cruelty) and a bevy of interesting characters, where everyone from the jailhouse snitch (Shea Whigham) and perhaps the sleaziest witness to ever take the stand (Eric Etebari) all have something to contribute.
It’s a poorly directed yet surprisingly watchable mystery that aches to stand with the gumshoe classics of the 1970s — films like “Night Moves’’ and “The Long Goodbye’’ — and it has the supporting cast and neo-soul soundtrack to get at least halfway there.
For “Lincoln Lawyer” to have worked it needed to be a cross between Sidney Lumet’s “The Verdict” and Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye.”
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The courtroom thriller used to be a staple of big-studio "adult" product, and the genre produced some notable --Â some would have said "important" --Â pictures over the course of its long heyday, from " Witness for the Prosecution " and " Anatomy of a Murder " in the '50s to " The Verdict " and, God help us, " Jagged Edge " in the '80s.
After all, Paul Newman had to struggle to stay sober in “The Verdict”; James Stewart had to go against a big-city lawyer in “Anatomy of a Murder.”
It feels, at times, like the actor sat down and watched “Harper’’ (1966), the sleepy LA noir in which Paul Newman played detective Lew Harper, a character based on Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer.
All twang and confidence, Mr. Just Keep Livin' hits the very notes that made him so durn winning in his indie debut, "Dazed and Confused," and his big-screen breakthrough, "A Time to Kill."
4. Fortunately, he's played by McConaughey, whom I haven't enjoyed more in a movie since "Dazed and Confused."
There’s always been a real actor lurking somewhere beneath McConaughey’s bronzed façade, even if it hasn’t surfaced much since his attention-getting early roles in Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused and the John Grisham adaptation A Time to Kill—performances that had some critics and commentators hailing McConaughey as a young Paul Newman (instead of a young Fabio).
But this was not one of those movies--in fact, I wager to say it's his best role since Dazed and Confused.
McConaughey’s unfortunate choice of roles (and, let’s face it, his offbeat off-screen behavior) have saddled him with a reputation as a vapid star with a penchant for unchallenging roles, a persona he seemed to invite the moment he espoused the virtues of high-school girls in Dazed and Confused nearly 20 years ago.
Gary Lucchesi produced "Primal Fear" early in his career, and one can see what drew him to John Romano's (“Intolerable Cruelty”) adaptation of the Michael Connelly novel with its similar plot about the client who acts like innocence personified before revealing the depths of depravity.
(It even shares a producer with one of the last gems of the genre, “Primal Fear.”)
Of course, you don’t go to a movie like The Lincoln Lawyer expecting a directorial master class, but a hatchet job like this does make one long for the solid, unfussy craftsmanship of a competent journeyman like Gregory Hoblit, whose Primal Fear and Fracture remain the recent high-water marks for this brand of courtroom potboiler.
We’ve seen The Lincoln Lawyer before—a little bit Primal Fear, a little bit A Time to Kill.
Fans of well-regarded gavel-pounders like Jagged Edge and Primal Fear will probably find a smoothly good ride from The Lincoln Lawyer.
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Drawn into a Chinatown-like morass without a Robert Towne or a Roman Polanski to guide him, Haller is nearly bailed out by crusty supporting characters played by William H. Macy and John Leguizamo.
We've come to know its streets, canyons and valleys through the adventures of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Chinatown's J.J. Gittes, Ross Macdonald's Harper and all the others in between.
In "The Lincoln Lawyer," a courtroom procedural based on the best-selling novel by Michael Connelly, he returns to the same genre that initially put him on the Hollywood A-list in 1996's riveting John Grisham adaptation "A Time to Kill."
Matthew McConaughey has joined the Atticus Finch law firm -- in both A Time to Kill (1996) and The Lincoln Lawyer, his character's conscience prevails.
It's understandable if, for those unfamiliar with author Michael Connelly, the title The Lincoln Lawyer followed by the words "Matthew McConaughey" induce bone-chilling shudders accompanied by visuals of the actor in his typical courtroom attire - dazed and bespectacled, as seen in Amistad and A Time To Kill ... shudder - giving a fiery, bongo- accompanied speech in the forgotten case of Mary Todd Lincoln v. the Ford Theatre's Refund Department.
All twang and confidence, Mr. Just Keep Livin' hits the very notes that made him so durn winning in his indie debut, "Dazed and Confused," and his big-screen breakthrough, "A Time to Kill."
That’s a problem: Mr. Naked Bongo Man hasn’t truly worked his thespic muscles since at least “We Are Marshall’’ (2006) and arguably as far back as “A Time to Kill’’ (1996).
If you took Jake Brigance from “A Time To Kill” and combined him with agent Rick Peck from “Tropic Thunder” you would get Mick Haller.