"Goddamnit! I was right!"
-- the blog author, aloud, in the movie theater,
as an on-screen, indoor gunfight erupts very
late during the motion picture The Lincoln Lawyer
I live in a small town where movies are only shown weeks after they are released. The Lincoln Lawyer will probably be closed in a few weeks. Go see this picture on the big screen while you still can.
There are two overwhelming reasons why I say this. The first is that a lot of the action in the movie was filmed at night. The nighttime color cinematography is excellent. And these night shots are where the clues are. The second reason is that, like Body Heat and Chinatown, this film is one of those rare examples of great film noir shot in color. The big screen still does these kinds of late night, murky images significantly better than any home presentation.
There are a couple of other reasons to see it while it is still in a theater. Surround-sound means you can hear the incredibly crisp dialog clearly and understand it immediately. John Romano does a splendid job of converting the Michael Connelly novel to a screenplay. And there are sound effects, such as an immediately off-camera beating in which one of the characters is clubbed to within an inch of his life. Director Brad Furman has a few short scenes with furious or frantic inmates, exactly enough to show us why prison life is to be avoided at all costs. A young real estate wizard, Louis Roulet (played perfectly by Ryan Phillippe) is the defendant and Roulet’s Beverly Hills mother is splendidly portrayed by Frances Fisher. The various assistant district attorneys, bailiffs and courthouse regulars are well cast as well.
Much of the heavy lifting is done by The Lincoln Lawyer himself, amoral rogue Mickey Haller, played by Matthew McConaughey in his best role in many a year. Haller’s ex-wife, Maggie McPherson, herself a prosecutor at the courthouse, is played with unique skill by Marisa Tomei. Tomei is fantastic as a middle-aged single mother with a chip on her shoulder about her ex-husband as she carries a lot of responsibilities with tremendous common sense.
Mickey Haller knows everyone, knows what to say, and knows how to bend the law, but he’s a divorced cynic whose only real friend is his chauffeur, who expertly drives his well-maintained, mid-eighties Lincoln Town Car. Over the course of 118 minutes of film, we watch him mature as a man and as a professional.
Don’t miss this great combination of film noir edginess and courtroom drama. It deserves Oscar nominations for Romano’s screenplay adapted from a novel, cinematography, best supporting actor (Ryan Phillippe) and best supporting actress (Marisa Tomei). It’s a remarkable effort that will come back and make you think about it the day after you’ve seen it. Let justice be done though the heavens may fall! And, as usual, justice is rated R.
-- the blog author, aloud, in the movie theater,
as an on-screen, indoor gunfight erupts very
late during the motion picture The Lincoln Lawyer
I live in a small town where movies are only shown weeks after they are released. The Lincoln Lawyer will probably be closed in a few weeks. Go see this picture on the big screen while you still can.
There are two overwhelming reasons why I say this. The first is that a lot of the action in the movie was filmed at night. The nighttime color cinematography is excellent. And these night shots are where the clues are. The second reason is that, like Body Heat and Chinatown, this film is one of those rare examples of great film noir shot in color. The big screen still does these kinds of late night, murky images significantly better than any home presentation.
There are a couple of other reasons to see it while it is still in a theater. Surround-sound means you can hear the incredibly crisp dialog clearly and understand it immediately. John Romano does a splendid job of converting the Michael Connelly novel to a screenplay. And there are sound effects, such as an immediately off-camera beating in which one of the characters is clubbed to within an inch of his life. Director Brad Furman has a few short scenes with furious or frantic inmates, exactly enough to show us why prison life is to be avoided at all costs. A young real estate wizard, Louis Roulet (played perfectly by Ryan Phillippe) is the defendant and Roulet’s Beverly Hills mother is splendidly portrayed by Frances Fisher. The various assistant district attorneys, bailiffs and courthouse regulars are well cast as well.
Much of the heavy lifting is done by The Lincoln Lawyer himself, amoral rogue Mickey Haller, played by Matthew McConaughey in his best role in many a year. Haller’s ex-wife, Maggie McPherson, herself a prosecutor at the courthouse, is played with unique skill by Marisa Tomei. Tomei is fantastic as a middle-aged single mother with a chip on her shoulder about her ex-husband as she carries a lot of responsibilities with tremendous common sense.
Mickey Haller knows everyone, knows what to say, and knows how to bend the law, but he’s a divorced cynic whose only real friend is his chauffeur, who expertly drives his well-maintained, mid-eighties Lincoln Town Car. Over the course of 118 minutes of film, we watch him mature as a man and as a professional.
Don’t miss this great combination of film noir edginess and courtroom drama. It deserves Oscar nominations for Romano’s screenplay adapted from a novel, cinematography, best supporting actor (Ryan Phillippe) and best supporting actress (Marisa Tomei). It’s a remarkable effort that will come back and make you think about it the day after you’ve seen it. Let justice be done though the heavens may fall! And, as usual, justice is rated R.
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