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Perhaps people will view Matthew McConaughey, who has a handful of bad movies on his resume, differently after seeing The Lincoln Lawyer. His performance did not carry the whole movie, but it certainly helped the film's predictable premise: a lawyer who deals with small criminals on a daily basis for money, but after running into a high profile client, Mick Haller's life was turned upside down. The contents are formulaic: lawyer represented client for assault, got him out, and got him back in jail for murder. It may be entertaining to read but it is really repetitive if you see over and over again. We'd seen this many times on TV, but The Lincoln Lawyer extended to a movie thanks to the writer, John Romano. Written with a lovely balance of courtroom drama and the characters themselves, the script is the film's greatest strength. Although, I found myself thinking at times that the film is a little messy with the plot.

And maybe another strength of the film is the quirky camera angles of newcomer director Brad Furman. And let's not forget why Hollywood will not treat Matthew McConaughey the same after this film. He was always playing the charming guy in the funny movies, but here he got to show both his charms and his acting skills in the film. The Lincoln Lawyer maybe messy and hard to believe, but as far as I'm concerned, Matthew McConaughey's charms and wit will win anyone over.

I wished Billy Bob Thornton hadn't narrated the film because he was supposed to be a quiet character that kept everything to himself; a fine character crafted by the Coen brothers. Letting him narrate was probably the worst thing that you can do in this film. The genre is not well known now and it is obviously dated, but the Coens decided to do it anyways. They tapped on an unfamiliar genre and still succeeded to make it entertaining. Now given that it's not perfect (slow pacing, dull directing) and it may not be one of their best, The Man Who Wasn't There still has a great script and is a great tribute to the genre.

There's an audio review of this film, check it out.

It tried to be serious at times but ended up too funny to be serious. The quirky character by Tom Hanks is probably one of the Coens' best ones, he is well-developed, humorous, and weird-looking. The rest of the cast is also one of the best ensemble of the Coens' career: stupid, Chinese, bowel issues, and black. Now the story may be used many times before but the writers obviously did some tweaks to it that made it so original. The script isn't perfect, in fact, it is probably a lower level script of the Coens' career. But I think that the film showed more of the directing side of the brothers than the writing side. The imaginative scenes, the cat, and the teeth all demonstrate how well they can transform simple things into beauty. The Ladykillers isn't better than the original and it is definitely flawed, but Tom Hanks' likable character and the bold directing made the film worthwhile.