FILM CRITIQUE

Final film critique

Film Critique

Storytelling

The Lincoln Lawyer obviously veers into overly familiar territory at times. Its courtroom tactics are rather pedestrian to anyone who has ever watched Law & Order, and some of its biggest twists are anything but shocking. That said, the director, and, the cast keep people invested in seeing where Mick Haller ends up, and, in how much he may have to sacrifice in order to become a better man. Given the quality of many American television shows right now, it is no slight to the cinema when something like The Lincoln Lawyer comes on, and, says, in the most effective way possible, that reminded most of the people very much of a double-length episode of a legal procedural drama. In an altogether more unexpected way, people spoke highly of Matthew McConaughey. Here, is the way how it ends up feeling televisual. The supporting cast includes William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei, John Leguizamo, Bryan Cranston, Michael Peña, Michael Paré and Josh Lucas.

A few moderately illustrious names are there, but more importantly, a whole lot of talent. The sounds were good and right. The trouble is that they that they were all playing characters with little to do. The Lincoln Lawyer brings out a procession of extraneous characters from the exact beginning: the investigator, the secretary, the chauffeur, the prostitute, the grizzled cop, the dedicated cop, the prosecutors, the drug addict, the guardian Hell's Angels, etc, etc and so, casting more well-known actors feels almost like a reflexive move against how televisual it all is. Some of those characters, most notably William H. Macy's Frank and Marisa Tomei's Maggie, would be recurring characters if this were a TV series, but the others feel like easily interchangeable archetypes who could be encountered every week in something like Law And Order. In amongst all of this, Ryan Philippe, an actor for whom people have much praise, seems to be on auto-pilot as Roulet. Sure, he has done a great piece of work, and he is doing a decent job of concealing his true nature to the rest of the world, but he is never menacing, which could have helped instill some tension when people know the truth about the crime from very early times. McConaughey has practically admitted himself that he lost out on a bigger salary by doing this film instead of another romantic comedy, but honestly, it pays off for him. It is the first time that most of the people have seen him in a role where he did not get on the nerves, and, it is a strong indicator of how good he could be if he chucks in his status of (un)romantic lead, and, keeps right on this path. Indeed, as Haller's rival prosecutor.

Josh Lucas suffered most from McConaughey's newly discovered talents because they have always viewed the two as so interchangeable with one another that the geek genuinely became concerned in the scenes where they squared ...