Movie Box Review

HBO can afford to keep little-watched shows like In Treatment and Treme around, because they're not selling advertising--they're selling a brand.  People who will only watch True Blood and Entourage feel better about being subscribers when they know they've got access to excellence at other hours too.  TNT, though, needs eyeballs that sponsors will pay for, and the excellent Men Of A Certain Age never supplied those in any numbers.  The show was virtually unmarketable, having no procedural hook and protagonists who, often foolishly, tried to make their ways through middle age; the only thing that might have saved it was a great deal of Emmy love, and a single nomination for Andre Braugher yesterday wasn't enough.  Ray Romano (who also co-created the show), Scott Bakula and Braugher gave performances as good as any on television--with one of the finest supporting casts as well--and the writing was superbly, quietly nuanced in a way that sadly will never draw a big crowd.  

Worth a ticket.

It's a little mysterious that Michael Connelly's trim, twisty crime novels have so rarely hit the screen. Perhaps it was the tepid reception received by Blood Work in 2002, unfortunately one of Clint Eastwood's more dismal films of the last decade. Or just the usual horror stories of movie industry development. In any case, THE LINCOLN LAWYER is an imperfect but sturdy piece of work that could well lead to more Connelly adaptations.

Lincoln Lawyer is based on Connelly's second-tier book franchise, about the cynical defense attorney Mickey Haller (first tier is occupied by LAPD detective Harry Bosch; in the Connelly universe, Bosch and

Haller know each other and have co-starred in each other's books). Haller's gimmick, and the explanation of the title, is that he prefers to stay constantly on the move, doing his between-court work in the back seat of a Lincoln sedan rather than an office. In this entry, Haller (played by Matthew McConaughey) is asked to represent rich boy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe), accused of beating a prostitute. It looks like an easy payday, but of course nothing is as it appears to be, and the story takes several satisfying turns.

It would be nice if the film didn't look so much like the pilot for a TNT series (director Brad Furman, in his first Hollywood movie, overdoes the close-ups and shows limited visual style). Most of the cast, though, is very strong: Marisa Tomei as Haller's ex-wife who happens (of course) to be a DA, William H Macy as his investigator, cops in the persons of Bryan Cranston, Mikaela Conlon and Michael Pare, Josh Lucas as opposing counsel, John Leguizamo as the local bail bondsman, and Margarita Levieva as the victim of the crime. The conspicuous exception is McConaughey--not that he's bad, but this extreme Los Angeleno (the character's dad was Mickey Cohen's lawyer) was never meant to have a thick Texas accent, and Haller's slyness and subtlety is somewhat beyond McConaughey's' powers (when he's calculating tactics, it's not that you can see the wheels turning in his head so much as you watch his windmill rotate). Nevertheless, screenwriter John Romano does a good job at compressing the complicated story into a tidy 2 hours, and the picture buzzes along. Although the film is predicted to have a mid-level opening, it should hold its place in theatres for a few solid weeks and live for years on cable and video.

(THE LINCOLN LAWYER - Relativity - 119 min. - Director: Brad Furman - Script: John Romano (based on Michael Connelly's novel) - Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, John Leguizamo, William H Macy, Josh Lucas, Frances Fisher, Bryan Cranston, Michael Pare, Mikaela Conlon - Wide Release)

--Mitch Salem