The best defense

The Lincoln Lawyer

Crit

I don't remember much about T. S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral (hey, it was high school; I was 15), but one couplet has always stuck with me, when Thomas à Becket counts it "the greatest treason / To do the right deed for the wrong reason." This film flips that, as Matthew McConaughey's defense lawyer Mick Haller--who frankly doesn't seem to lose a lot of sleep over ethics--finds himself in a trap that compels him to do the wrong thing for the right reason.

Not a great film--until the big twist that establishes the cetral dilemma, we have little reason to be involved beyond the slickness of the production values and the prettiness of the people, but that hook sets deep, so we forgive the because-the-plot-needs-it implausibilities of his divorce from Marisa Tomei's assistant D.A. despite the fact that they remain deeply in love, hot for each other, and mutually devoted to their daughter (yeah, yeah, "My job is keeping scumbags off the street, yours is to keep putting them out there," but still . . . ) and Josh Lucas's asst. DA's violating the rule that anyone who's ever seen a courtroom drama knows: never ask a question in court that you don't already know the answer to.

The film's greatest treason? Not enough Bill Macy.

Trailers

• Water for Elephants--A radically different trailer from the one I've seen repeatedly before, which must not have been working. This one is more plot-, backstory-, and Robert Pattinson-centric.
• Conan the Barbarian--No, seriously! Looks barbaric.