The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011

The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011
Director: Brad Furman
Cast: Matthew McConnaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe

Stage: home theatre, on a lovely evening with my best friend

The Lincoln Lawyer in short: Mick Haller is a defense lawyer who works out of his Lincoln. When a wealthy Realtor is accused of raping a prostitute, Haller is asked to defend him. The man claims that the woman is trying to get some money out of him. But when Haller looks at the evidence against him, he learns that this case might be linked to an old case of his.

Preps: MMMM, yummy cast. The topic seems to be one of my personal favourites. And I am curious about the impact that Tomei and Philippe will have. Am sure that McConnaughey will be charming as always.

Reality: Wow, a positive surprise. Starting off with the devil's advocate - a figure of a successful young man, having everything at the top of his knees, begging for his time and patience. Whenever you see a figure like this, you wonder, how will this figure end and what will be the downfall. Because it's too good to be true forever.

The plot is simple and the case this lawyer is looking through, seems very clear. As we are already used to seeing rich people getting away with everything we have to be certain also in this case, if something goes wrong, this rich kid will pay to get his ass off the hook. Unfortunately enough for him, he isn't bred on the right side of the alley, because sometimes money cannot solve everything. The devil's advocate brilliantly falls into several traps and somehow finds also the escape gates at all times.. all the time inbetween you have a gut feeling he's gonna die, he's gonna get hit/robbed/raped - something from this scale. Because you can be quite certain he's playing a dangerous game that could easily cost him his life. In the end, a surprising turnover that can leave you without a breath for a few seconds at least. Brilliantly played, excellent choice of scenery and a good flow of adrenalin inbetween. Can easily say one of better action adventure drama (all - in - one) mixes lately.

How much is the truth worth - is one of the questions this movie poses. And how can you buy it, if we start from the point that everything is for sale. How come a lawyer that defends people that go beyond, all of the sudden, regrets something he did in his past? Can you live with yourself or do you every now and then, get into remorsement phase in your life and want to pay off your stinking debts/some ruins you caused.. an interesting call McConnaughey makes while trying to make it up for a ruined life of one individual he acciddently discovered. How about he never discovered this mistake he made? Would he still be so full of himself? This coincidence makes the line of activities he's trying to make, completely different and reverses all things he once believed in. In some sense, you get the feeling that even a tough guy like this one has to have a heart and conscience at some point, which means that all of us are vulnerable up to some extent, you just need to find the right trigger. So this could be the clue, what the trigger might be for a lawywer that works for the dark side.

Brilliant act from Tomei, on the other hand. I just love her sparks and energy. All in all, for all freaks like me, that go bizerk on lawyer / trial content in a movie, and maybe once dreamed about being one of the guys in LA Law or McBeal, well, this is the piece to watch.

My personal rating: 8,0 (a good, solid piece, that will easily keep your ass in the seat).

The Lincoln lawyer on IMDB

Runaway jury, 2003

Runaway jury, 2003
Director: Gary Fleder
Cast: Dustin Hoffmann, John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Rachel Weisz



Stage: Home selection on TV (indeed surprising, sometimes they can pick)

Preps: Just being home at the right time. Somewhere deep I remembered I loved the movie. The cast is amazing, all the icons I admire, and the woman that grew to my heart in these years that I have watched her. And the case with the jury. Something I wanted to be when being very young. So promising I wanted to watch it again and make some comments.

Reality: Even better than I expected. This time the theme sucks me in, the involvement of a crime in a place where no crime is expected or tolerated, in a sense that noone picks it up until the end of the movie. Cusack is simply brilliant, in the way he puts the minds and develops everyone in the jury with the flow of the movie (or shall I put, the development of the case). The case isn't important, politics is, this is the truth until the last five minutes, when a sudden turnaround happens to the surprise of the viewer.

In my opinion, a piece worth seeing, if not for a superb critic of the american justice system, then for a thorough insight on how you can guide someone's mind or opinion, how you can persuade a bunch of people to take you for what you want them to take, to think how you want them to think and in the end, decide on what you have decided when you first set eyes on them. The justice-representative, attorney, fights a glorious battle, that couldn't be won, except if there wasn't some philosophy and deep revenge down below in the base of the case. For which you don't know, only assume that something is happening and is revealed in the last minute of the movie.

Highly recommended.

My personal rating: 7,5 (a remarkable piece on usually boring attorney/prosecutor cases or movies describing something going on in the court. Can compare it to Erin Brokovich, except this one is mainly happening in the court).



Runaway on IMDB