'Lincoln Lawyer' author salutes star's 'natural-born slickness'

Hard-hitting crime novelist Michael Connelly says he doesn't want to sound like a Hollywood shill, but he honestly thinks Brad Furman's movie adaptation of his book “The Lincoln Lawyer” really captures the essence of his story and characters.

“I know I'm coming off as a phony guy who's just hawking a movie,” Connelly told me during a phone interview, “but I really love the movie. What I tried to do in the book was show a realistic look at a criminal defense attorney. A lot of cases. A lot of balls in the air. The movie captures that.”

Seedy L.A. attorney Mick Haller, a recurring figure in Connelly's novels, is played by Texas-born actor Matthew McConaughey.

Connelly loves him, too.

“He has a natural-born slickness that we've seen in many films, but he was also able to show the desperation and vulnerability of the character,” Connelly said.

“I saw him in ‘Tropic Thunder' with my wife. He played this real sleazy Hollywood agent. During the movie, I whispered to my wife that he'd be a good Mickey Haller.”

Six years after the publication of “The Lincoln Lawyer,” McConaughey landed the role of Mick Haller. The movie opens today at area theaters.

Why McConaughey?

“He's got these eyes that are always looking for an angle, along with the skill to work those angles. It's something he can project when he wants to.”

Still, McConaughey doesn't quite resemble the description of the literary Mickey Haller.

“That didn't bother me a bit,” Connolly said. “I just had this instinctive belief that he could be the character. And he pursued it (the character) in ways I really respected.”

As fans of crime fiction probably know, Connelly came to novel writing through crime reporting jobs at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

How influential was the journalism experience in his novel writing?

“We wouldn't be talking if that hadn't happened,” Connelly said. “I owe everything to it. It wasn't so important to know about such things as crime scenes so much as it was the characters I met, both good and bad.”

Like?

“Mostly the detectives. The challenges they face. The kind of quiet nobility they project while trying to do their job correctly, which is so hard to do. The challenge of not becoming personally corrupt. Morally corrupt. I covered crime for about 12 years and I saw that a lot. Now, I'm constantly drawing on that.”

Connelly got the idea for “The Lincoln Lawyer” during a 2000 baseball game where he met a defense attorney who worked in the back seat of his car, driven by a man the attorney had defended on a drug charge. The man agreed to be the attorney's driver as a way to pay off his fee.

Where's that lawyer now?

He's retired and living on a ranch in Montana. “I'm taking him to the movie premiere,” Connelly said.

McConaughey's character isn't based on the actual attorney, but is a composite of two other defense attorneys whom Connelly tailed for along time.

“I followed them into bars after work,” the novelist said. “The best research happened after work where they were having martinis and letting their guard down. That was when I got the best stuff.”