Now, be honest. Is that a brilliant poster, or an awful poster? I’m not sure. If I was being brutally honest, I would say I didn’t care. But, truth is, it’s important.
Lincoln Lawyer came out amidst the chaos of Battle: Los Angeles, and the enjoyable “mess” that is Limitless. But I barely noticed.
Then, within a week, my local Cineworld had bumped it to 9PM showings Monday to Friday.
“It must be shit”, I mused. And then the phone went.
“Mav, it’s me. JMcG. Remember our Cinepasses? The ones that we only need to go twice a month to get value from? Well, in March, we’ve been six times. Fancy Lincoln Lawyer to make it seven?”
“Not really”, I replied. Sneering at his stupidity that even though free, I would waste two hours seeing McConaughey blow his career. Again.
“Really? I hear it’s a gripping court room drama. There are flashback scenes to how the crime took place. You know, from the different perspectives. Like Rashoman. But with Ryan Phillipe, that guy who managed to bosh Reese Witherspoon… and starred in the greatest comedy of the last ten years/ever… Macgruber.”
“Hmmm… Intriguing. Is there a Lincoln car in it?”
“Yes! And Matty M has a black chauffeur called Earl. He also doesn’t blow his career – far from it – instead up with a role that may resurrect it. He plays it like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Full on cock sure. Arrogant as hell, but likeable. He says things like, “There’s only one verdict Baby, NG!” (meaning Not Guilty). He is a dude, and will really surprise you. Plus Marisa Tomei is in it.”
“Tomei? No shit? Why didn’t you say so??”The Lincoln Lawyer is a court room drama. For the last five minutes it pretends to be a thriller, but despite a couple of ludicrous plot turns, I loved it.
Much like JMcG, my learned cinema buddy infered, Matthew Mc knocks it out of the park. Southern drawl, and all out attitude. His character is grotesquely cocky at times, but so likeable. That may be because everyone around him is trying to kill prostitutes or spoilt rich kids. There are a lot of people in this film who you hope will also get stabbed 50 times with a flick knife – but somehow, there is a lot of charm, too.
Matthew Mc (Can you tell I struggle with his surname?), is the chief reason for that.
I suppose I’ve always liked him. He just frustrates me. He picks poor films, and then goes ages with doing nothing at all. My wife likes him, that’s for sure. The chemistry between he and Tomei is excellent. As a separated couple, with a child in the middle, there is still something there. You want them to get back together, and I ended up caring about them far more than I thought I would. The film reminded me of Adjustment Bureau in that sense.
The music is great, the film is well shot. I enjoyed it.
It does raise the question of books versus films. I’ll leave you to comment on that below. I’ve never read it. In truth, I hate to read, But this is one of those occasions where you can tell the film is based on a best selling book. There is one revelation late on, where Matthew Mc plays the scene very well. He guides the audience into understanding his though process, as he scurries through some boxes, looking at evidence. I can imagine that scene as it is written on the page. With the reader feeling like they are part of the discovery. Fair play to them for recreating that here.
Another twist late on, some of a “Rollo Tomassi” moment, would read better than it plays out. But they are small draw backs.
It’s nice to see Phillipe and Matthew Mc on the big screen. Both still young enough to make a difference, and when on form, well worth watching. I would give extra credit to Phillipe here for playing against type, then back to type, then back against and so on. I wasn’t sure where they would take his character next. It’s still Matthew Mcs film, though. His and Tomei’s.
I couldn’t believe they went with the old, “they were together, had a kid, but split because one is a defence lawyer, and the other believes in justice for all spiel”… but incredibly, it worked.
It’s not for everyone. It shouldn’t have been for me. But if you can stomach Matthew Mc, (and this being the first film he keeps his shirt on is a myth), and don’t mind a twisty turny plot, go for it. You could do a lot worse.
It’s a little long. Some of those plot turns will have you looking at the screen with a WTF face, but I wanted them to work. And the twisty turns towards the end are necessary, to stop the film fizzling out.
It reminded me of Fracture. And for me to make any comparison to Ryan Gosling is as serious a compliment as I can pay.
Don’t let this one pass you by. It’s NG, Baby.
