The Lincoln Lawyer

Directed by Brad Furman

(R)

***

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The Lincoln Lawyer is “such a close approximation of an airport novel you can practically run your fingers over the embossed cover,” said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. “Poorly directed yet surprisingly entertaining,” this adaptation of a Michael Connelly legal thriller stars Matthew McConaughey as a defense attorney who runs his business from the back seat of a chauffeured Lincoln. Powered by McConaughey’s “career-reshaping” performance, it proves to be “one of the year’s most delightful Hollywood surprises,” said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon.com. As a guy whose well-coiffed hair “has a touch too much grease,” the star “walks the fine line between charm and sleaze beautifully.” You even believe he yearns for redemption when he lands a rich client who claims innocence in an assault rap. The complications all go down “as smoothly as a milkshake” thanks to a supporting cast that includes Marisa Tomei as the protagonist’s ex-wife and William H. Macy as his P.I., said Lou Lumenick in the New York Post. The movie is a “tad overlong” and overly formulaic. But any project “that keeps McConaughey from showing off his abs has my support.”