April 10, 2011

Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

Okay, somebody needs to tell Matthew McConaughey to stop acting and just be the character. When I'm watching him I can almost hear the director saying, "Now look indignant," "Okay, now be intimidating," "Now show remorse." Jeez. You're just always aware that he's acting, and he's not even very good at it.
But if you can get past that (tough, since he's on screen about 98% of the time) The Lincoln Lawyer is a pretty good story. There are a few implausible relationships in the film, one between Mick (McConaughey) and Maggie, his ex-wife, played by Marisa Tomei (whose acting I usually like but not so in this, which leads me to believe the director is part of the problem). There's another with a gang of Hell's Angels who magically appear to come to his aid. Yeah, right.
Many unnecessary characters scattered throughout. But okay, enough of that. You can get past that because it's a complicated script about a smart-ass, engaging character, and I like that kind of film. I just wish someone else had played the smart-ass, engaging character.
A couple of nits to pick: There's a scene where Mick is peeing and his client comes into the bathroom to confront him. Mick, cooly (of course), zips up, snarls a word or two to his client and then leaves the bathroom. Without washing his hands. Eeewwww.
Oh, crap, I forgot the other one. Have to write these things down.
Incidentally, there are probably half a dozen scenes like the picture above, where he's 2" from various people. Ooh, so intimidating.
Two and 1/2 stars out of five for The Lincoln Lawyer.

1 comment:

Kristen said...

Good to hear. I just picked up the book in Vegas. Maybe without Mathew, it'll play out better in my Hollywood imagination!