‘Lincoln’ logging

In theaters Friday: Drive, I Don’t Know How She Does It, Straw Dogs

New on DVD/Blu-ray: Another Earth, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Thor

Based on Michael Connelly’s pulp legal novel of the same name, The Lincoln Lawyer stars Matthew McConaughey as a slick defense attorney who unexpectedly lands a “franchise case” from an ultra-rich Beverly Hills playboy who handpicks him after being arrested for assaulting a call girl. The movie begins as a run-of-the-mill courtroom showdown carried only by McConaughey’s charisma and the comically hate-fueled interactions he elicits from colleagues, but soon shifts into a crime mystery before finally settling into a sprint-to-the-finish thriller when the truth is revealed, battle are lines drawn and everyone makes their final play.

For a film with Lincoln in the title, I expected the car, and it’s driver, to play a larger role. I wanted to see more of the mechanics (pardon the pun) of an attorney working out of a car rather than an office. Surely, there was more fun to be had with this quirky conceit. But it comes off like a underdeveloped subplot to grab our attention in the first act. But if the film wanted to be more than a sufficiently written and acted legal thriller, it would have taken more time to show us enough of McConaughey’s character that we buy into his change.

The Lincoln Lawyer’s main problem is one of extremes. There aren’t enough of them. The tone is too consistently casual. McConaughey is constantly characterized as a sleazy defense attorney, but we aren’t shown any particularly sleazy tactics other than him making a few extra bucks off his uber-rich clients with a staged paparazzi video buy-off scheme that comes off more humorous than devious or justice mocking. If he had started the film as a real ambulance-chasing scumbag, his choices later would have been all the more rewarding.

It was also kind of funny seeing Josh Lucas cast as the prosecutor. I always thought of him as the poor man’s Matthew McConaughey. I guess watching Lucas get a courtroom tongue-lashing from a furious judge while McConaughey stands by and smirks makes a lot of sense. Another bout of perfect casting is Ryan Phillippe as the wealthy defendant. With his perpetually preppy East Coast boarding school accent, Phillippe’s role is right down his wheelhouse. His character is alternately cold-blooded and “Why me?” whiney, stuck up and smarmy, just one psychotic nudge past his most memorable role in Cruel Intentions.

Marisa Tomei does her cutesy cutting best as McConaughey’s love interest but Bryan Cranston, William H. Macy, Michael Pena and Shea Whigham turn up in roles far too small for their talents, even though the run-time stretches to two hours. While I enjoyed it enough, overall, I can’t shake the odd feeling that there’s both too much in this movie and not enough. The Lincoln Lawyer would have been better off requesting a change of venue, as a TV series on HBO or AMC.