Standard courtroom drama surprises

The plot synopsis of “The Lincoln Lawyer” on IMDb reads, “A lawyer conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car while representing a high-profile client in Beverly Hills,” but “A lawyer represents a high-profile client” would be just fine.

I presumed for whatever reason that this was some poverty story about a lawyer with only his Lincoln and his brains to his name. 

Actually, the screenplay I just wrote for “The Lincoln Lawyer” is probably more cliché than the film itself, which is really just a standard courtroom drama. But I guess I shouldn’t complain that it’s smart, well-acted, nicely made and not wholly predictable. 

Mick Haller is a defense lawyer specializing in reducing the sentences of particularly nasty criminals. Now he’s faced with an attempted murder and rape case and a defendant who claims he’s innocent.

Matthew McConaughey plays Haller, and it is refreshing to see him in a role that does not make him a target of instant affection.

The film uses an intimate documentary style of filmmaking so that it doesn’t always look like an episode of “Law & Order,” even if sometimes it plays out like one.