The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

 6/10

Starring

Matthew McConaughey

Marisa Tomei

Ryan Phillippe

Josh Lucas

John Leguizamo

 

Directed by Brad Furman

 

The movie is based on a 2005 novel of the same name by Michael Connelly.

The movie idea is the world is full of crazies and The Lincoln Lawyer is a movie about what happens when one of them has a hard on for you. The movie takes pride in letting you know from the start that there is something up. It drops hints about how things are not first adding up, then it drops the bombshell – Mickey’s (Matthew McConaughey) client Louis (Ryan Phillippe) is not innocent. Now reading this and seeing who Mickey was doesn’t change anything you will think. Mickey is a lawyer who does most of his work in his black Lincoln Town Car. His clientele covers everyone from the guilty to the innocent, you will feel this was in his alley. But the twist here is, Louis is not guilty of a crime like drugs, theft or things like that. Louis is guilty of attempted sexual assault, assault with a deadly weapon and beating a woman so bad the picture is scary.

Louis being guilty is not just the problem here, we find out that Louis picked Mickey to be his lawyer, for one reason only. Mickey unknowingly helped him get away with doing this same crime once before, by getting the person he defended to plead guilty to the crime. Louis is getting his kinks off watching the system twirl in his hands and playing the game just right so he can get off.

The movie is fantastic to watch, as we see how the knowledge of knowing he sent an innocent man to jail is eating at Mickey and he wanting to do right by that man by getting him out of jail. The problem is he is Louis’ lawyer and everything he knows is protected under the attorney-client privilege. He cannot disclose anything he knows even though he dug deeper to discover how guilty Louis really is. Things take a turn when we realise how far Louis is willing to go to get free and does not care who he hurts to get there.

McConaughey’s acting and in this movie leads the pack to the way this movie will forever be seen. The Lincoln Lawyer is a courtroom thriller with nothing much in the area of suspense. The movie bares it all in the beginning, but thrilling to see is how Mickey was going to find a way to twist himself out of the whole problem he finds himself.