Have you read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies? It’s really an excuse of a book, allegedly a parody, that sets Jane Austen in a zombie apocalypse, but is actually just boring, dumb and uninventive. Well, the good news is that The Lincoln Lawyer – based as it is on Michael Connelly’s cracking book of the same name – is not that bad.
It has a certain style and panache and it moves at a pace that’s pleasing. Great cast too – Josh Lucas (where’s he been? – eating out a lot, apparently), William H Macey, Frances Fisher, John Leguziamo, Bryan Cranston. It does unfortunately transform the magnificent prosecutor Maggie McFierce (Marisa Tomei) into a simpering housewife who’s passive and compliant and wet, which is disappointing, but even that’s not entirely debilitating.
No. Rather, the reason The Lincoln Lawyer sinks perilously close to cinematic disaster is waxy Matt McConaughey, or more specifically his really awful hair. Mickey Haller’s meant to be half-Mexican, for God’s sake, not some aging southern frat-blonde with a permanent wave. It’s distracting.
Connolly’s books are front-and-centre LA, and the movie uses LA backdrops and locations throughout, most of them non-descript.