McConaughey fits perfect into the mold of Mick Haller in ‘The
Lincoln Lawyer’
Plenty of actors are typecast, but Matthew McConaughey might be
the only one who has played a lawyer on multiple occasions. He
played the cocky Jake Tyler Brigance in
”
A Time to Kill,
”
about a young lawyer who defends a black man on trial in the
south. He played Roger Sherman Baldwin, in
”
Amistad,
”
a movie set in the 1800s that dealt with issues of race in the
era of slavery.
McConaughey fits perfect into the mold of Mick Haller in ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’
Plenty of actors are typecast, but Matthew McConaughey might be the only one who has played a lawyer on multiple occasions. He played the cocky Jake Tyler Brigance in “A Time to Kill,” about a young lawyer who defends a black man on trial in the south. He played Roger Sherman Baldwin, in “Amistad,” a movie set in the 1800s that dealt with issues of race in the era of slavery.
His latest turn is as Mick Haller, a cocky lawyer who does his best to keep his scumbag clients on the streets as a defense attorney who works from the back of his Lincoln continental. McConaughey’s swagger often plays in his favor in the romantic comedies he settled into for the last few years, but he takes it up a few notches in the latest.
Directed by Brad Furman and based on a novel by Michael Connelly, the latest legal drama touches on issues of race in a more subtle way. Haller deals with low-profile cases, mostly repeat offenders picked up on drug charges who can’t always easily pay the bills.
When he gets a tip from a bails bond (John Leguizamo) about a rich kid picked up on an assault and battery charge he starts to salivate at the thought of how much money he can make. Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) is a 32-year-old Beverly Hills playboy who is picked up with blood on his shirt in the apartment of an Hispanic woman he met at a bar. Reggie Campo (Margarita Levieva) is beaten on the left side of her face and stabbed with a folding knife.
Mick Haller gets Louis out on bail. He and his investigator Frank Levin (William H. Macy) meet with Louis and a family attorney to get his side of what happened. Louis’ story is consistent throughout the telling. He said he was at a bar when he noticed a girl at the bar. The girl was there with another guy, a guy in a Mustang. When she went to the bathroom, she slipped Louis a note with her name and address on it. According to Louis’ story, he arrived just as the guy in the Mustang was leaving the house. He knocked on the door and Reggie opened it into a narrow hallway. Louis had to brush past her to get in the door – and that’s when he claims he was hit on the back of the head and knocked out.
Mick is used to his clients claiming their innocence, but for once he actually believes his client might be telling the truth. When video surveillance from the night club backs up what Louis said, Mick is sure of his innocence. That is until, a deputy district attorney shares some information they’ve been holding back. Ted Minton (Josh Lucas), the prosecutor on the case, has in evidence a knife with the initials LR carved into the handle, covered in blood. When confronted with that information, Louis does not waiver from his story that he is being set up. He suggests that Reggie was working with the guy in the mustang to set Louis up so that the two of them could sue him in civil court for damages. He sometimes suggests Reggie beat herself up before he came to the door, since he only saw the right side of her face when she answered the door.
As Frank and Mick dig deeper into the case, Louis’ version of events starts to seem less likely. The tipping point is when Mick remembers a case he worked on five years before in which a young Hispanic man was sentenced to life in prison. The guy was picked up on a murder rap of a prostitute. Jesus Martinez (Daniel Pena) admitted to paying the woman for sex, but said when he left her in the apartment she was fine. The woman was beaten – on just the left side of her face – and stabbed 52 times with a short-blade knife. Mick did not believe the man was innocent, and used his family to convince Jesus to take a plea deal that put him in prison for the rest of his life instead of giving him the death penalty.
As Mick and Frank continue to work out the details of both cases, Mick starts to question if his judgment has been clouded by defending so many criminals. He worries that he can’t see innocence anymore.
McCounaughey is in top form in the film, but what really makes it work is the strong performances from some other key players. Marisa Tomei plays Mick’s ex-wife Maggie McPherson and a prosecutor for the DA’s office. She is a foil for everything Mick is not. Macy, Lucas and Pena all held up well in their smaller parts on screen. The only weak spots were Phillippe, who didn’t show enough emotion in his scenes, especially early on in the film, and Trace Adkins (the country singer) who plays an outlaw biker.
