Directed by: Brad Furman
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillipe, William H. Macy
Rating: R

Matthew McConaughey stars in The Lincoln Lawyer. (Courtesy photo)

Well, I hand it to The Lincoln Lawyer for giving us a twist on the "Lawyer does things unconventionally, but he gets the job done" routine. This fast-talking lawyer is certainly unconventional, but he's also not very good at his job. Some might call that a multilayered script; others may call it a bad plotline. This movie tries desperately to show us that it's the former, with limited but solid success.

Matthew McConaughey (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days) plays Mick Haller, a big-shot Los Angeles lawyer whose office is the backseat of a Lincoln Town Car. After a number of low-profile cases, he finally gets the big case he's been waiting for—defending the extremely wealthy Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe, Cruel Intentions) against charges of assault. Haller teams up with his investigator, Frank Levin (William H. Macy, Fargo), to tackle the case. It's an easy win, with little digging to do—that is, until the case becomes entangled with what were seemingly unrelated murder cases. We find out soon enough that Roulet is a lying scumbag, but he's got Haller in a bind. It's a mess of who-set-up-whom, reaching from Haller and Roulet to Haller's ex-wife Maggie (Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler) to Roulet's mother to random nightclub patrons to convicted felons to fellow attorneys, and so on. He might have to go outside his legal responsibilities as a lawyer, but Haller is going to make sure the right person goes to jail, no matter where he has to drive in the process.

Director Brad Furman (The Take) has made his first mainstream movie ambitiously, and, for the most part, his work pays off. The movie is dark and suspenseful when it needs to be, but it never loses its sunny Los Angeles flair. It's energetic, but not overdone. However, Furman relies a little too much on the shaky-cam effect to establish that this is a gritty legal drama, even though we already know that. He also doesn't push the actors as far as they could go; he doesn't leave them alone to flounder, but he doesn't bring them to any remarkable level. Overall, though, the film moves along at the right pace, with mostly clean editing, a good soundtrack, and writing that takes Michael Connelly's thriller novel and turns it into a suspenseful movie that doesn't feel cheap.

The biggest problems lie with the actors. McConaughey is trying for a career-making performance, but he's not quite there. He dons an inconsistent, almost-southern drawl for his role and tries to pass that off as character. Haller is more than that, though; he's a man with an ego that's coming back to kick him in the rear, but McConaughey's having too much fun with the accent to do much with the role. Tomei's Maggie is kind, but mostly a throwaway character so that Furman can give the audience the love interest and sex that any modern movie "needs." Phillippe, meanwhile, huffs and puffs around as Roulet, proclaiming "I didn't do it!" one time too many. He's miscast in the role; he's far too baby-faced to play someone so evil. Macy, on the other hand, isn't miscast. The role is just a bad one. Levin is instantly likable, but then the writing throws the character away—and literally, too. To be fair to the other actors, John Romano's (Nights in Rodanthe) screenplay falls short when it comes to their characters too, but they at least have a little more to work with.

We're supposed to get the sense that Haller is a real tough guy, driving around in his little car to do his business around town. I suppose that does make him tough—it takes real chutzpah to drive the LA freeways, I'm told. But he's a loose cannon of a lawyer; he's mostly talk, and we know something bad is coming his way. Sure, it makes for a less predictable ending than your typical legal movie, but it's hard to root for someone with such a big ego and so little to show for it. The movie is exciting, sure; worth the price of admission, even. But there's something missing that leaves us unfulfilled, and that's what keeps this movie from being a hit.

Danny Eisenberg is a 2010 graduate of the Bromfield School and is currently a student at the University of Pennsylvania.