Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2012

In this adroit adaptation of one of Michael Connelly’s complex and realistic page-turners, Matthew McConaughey, doing his best (least vapid) work in years, assays with only occasional overacting the title role of Mick Haller, a clever but charmingly amoral criminal defense attorney whose office is the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car. He gets a profitable break when he’s hired to defend a multimillionaire (Ryan Phillippe) on rape charges, but quickly finds himself in a lose-lose ethical dilemma that will require all his notorious craftiness to get out of. Also William H. Macy and Marisa Tomei.