Matthew McConaughey plays Mick Hailer, a lawyer in Hollywood who plays hard and defends nasty, nasty criminals. He’s a smooth talker and has a reputation for getting the guilty off. Then he gets the case of Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe), a very rich young man who has been accused of beating a prostitute. But, as he investigates, he comes to believe that his client is guilty and capable of a lot worse.
This film has an awesome cast – William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei, Bryan Cranston, and so many more. But a good cast wasn’t going to save it. I just didn’t believe the emotions that McConaughey’s character was supposedly feeling. Ryan Phillippe was surprisingly good – I say surprisingly, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything he’s done before, so I didn’t have any reason to think that he wouldn’t be good. But the way he switches from playing the innocent victim to the evil control freak was pretty impressive. Still not enough to save the film.