The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

It's been a while since Jack and I have gone to a matinee on a movie's opening day, but we managed it Friday and liked the story of an L.A. attorney working out of the back seat of his vintage Town Car (his using a driver is explained early on) with the license plate NTGUILTY. Starring Matthew McConaughey (my favorites of his work: Edtv (1999), Contact (1997), Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001), How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days (2003), and Dazed and Confused (1993), in that order) and Ryan Phillippe (he bugs me, despite the fact that he's been in some movies I loved, e.g. Gosford Park (2001), one of my all-time favorites Igby Goes Down (2002), and Crash (2004)) as the lawyer Micky Haller and his Beverly Hills client Louis Roulet (because Roulet is sketchy, it's okay that I feel that way about Phillippe), the movie boasts McConaughey's confident grin, a real plot, photography of all sides of the city, some kick-ass rap music and more star power in the supporting roles. Marisa Tomei (I wrote about her in Cyrus) is credited as a star but her role is supporting, though not superfluous, as Micky's wife. Michael Peña (Crash, Babel (2006), World Trade Center (2006), more) has some fine and moving scenes as convict Jesus Martinez. The reliable William H. Macy (Oscar nominated for Fargo (1996), he was also wonderful in Boogie Nights (1997), Wag the Dog (1997), Magnolia (1999), State and Main (2000), The Cooler (2003), Thank You for Smoking (2005), and the current outstanding and nasty Showtime series Shameless) puts in good work as the investigator Frank, as does Bryan Cranston (formerly Malcolm in the Middle's dim dad Hal, then Breaking Bad's crafty high-school-chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-manufacturer Walt) as a detective, and country music star Trace Adkins plays the leader of a motorcycle gang who, to quote The Wizard of Oz, come and go so quickly.

Director Brad Furman started out as Julia Roberts' assistant on Erin Brockovich (2000) and The Mexican (2001) and in the next two years he wrote, produced, and directed three shorts. Now, after directing another feature, The Take (2007) that got right past me, he's in the multiplexes with this one. I looked at 10-15 sites to find out his age, but it's apparently not public. John Romano wrote the screenplay adaptation of the Michael Connelly 2005 novel of the same name. The Lincoln Lawyer is the first of Connelly's "Micky Haller novels" (he's written 14 "Harry Bosch novels," two "Micky Haller and Harry Bosch novels," and another "Micky Haller novel" is coming out next month--good timing!).

The song list can be found here, clips are edited together on this preview, and here's a taste of the original music by Cliff Martinez (fascinating bio, and downloads of music files are available on another page of his site). When you see it, remember I mentioned "missionary man." This is good entertainment--a bit dark, not for kids, rated R for a reason.

There were plenty of people at our afternoon screening, including a woman older than I who shushed me 10 seconds after the trailers began (Jack noted that, though we kept our remarks to each other to in-ear-whispering, people around her were talking, rustling wrappers, and one had a conversation on her cell phone). Perhaps the increased numbers were due to the fact that Groupon sold 190,000 discount tickets! Despite that promotion, Limitless kicked The Lincoln Lawyer's ass at the box office last weekend.