The Lincoln Lawyer
Director: Brad Furman
Year Released: 2011
Rating: 2.0
A smarmy lawyer (Matthew McConaughey), who operates out of the backseat of a car (!) and has his own chauffeur (!!), is asked to cover a case involving the rape of a woman by a smarmy man-of-privilege (Ryan Phillippe). Really just a feature-length version of those legal dramas flooding American TV - everything fits together (even when it shouldn't logically) and McConaughey is give little else to do but appear strident and piercing. The ethical conundrum of using one client to free a past client is admittedly intriguing, but the script has all those loose-ends dealt with ever so carefully. Bill Macy has a great bit as McConaughey's right hand man ... that is, until he's eliminated. Nice line from a scummy 'witness': "I'm a missionary man. With a strong left."
