Every once in a while, a perfectly decent film comes out of Hollywood…and sinks without a trace. We’ve seen it a couple of times this season…and at least one of them has some powerful performances by two generations of fine Latino actors.
The Lincoln Lawyer, based on the novel by Michael Connelley, should have been a hit—in fact, it was supposed to be Matthew McConaughey’s comeback film, another feather in Marisa Tomei’s cap, a showpiece of John Leguizamo and the “two” in the one-two punch for Michael Peña, a talented and often understated young Latino actor who’s been waiting for his big break.
Well, Michael is still waiting. “Lincoln” started out solidly enough in April, the same week as Limitless and Paul (two other perfectly decent films, as it happens, that have already been forgotten). But in the long run it made slightly less than $60 million domestically—not great for a movie that cost around $50 million to produce—and a paltry $17million overseas.
So what happened? After all four out of five movie reviews were positive. The writing was solid, the best-seller pedigree was equally enviable…and nobody cared. Maybe it was the economy—last spring, especially, it had to be a mega-boom or it wasn’t going to make any money at all. Maybe it was lackluster promotion, or a terrible title (best-seller not withstanding) that made most folks think it was an historical epic or a period piece. Whatever the reason, it sank beneath the waves without so much as a ripple…but now, after what seems like many months later, you can actually see these quality performances, as the DVD is released at long last.
Better luck next time, Michael Peña. We’ll be watching.
