Matthew McConaughey Reinvented: From RomCom King to Serious Dramatic Actor
Charlie Greenwald ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff
My mom, like many other heterosexual women who get hot and bothered by the presence of southern charm, loves Matthew McConaughey. I, on the other hand, haven’t always. As with many male celebrities who my girlfriends and relatives have had crushes on over the years, I used to hate hearing his name. Like Ashton Kutcher or Ryan Reynolds, I innately despised him for being in cheesy romantic comedies and also more handsome than me.
Early in his career, McConaughey had a promising career going, starring in films like the hilarious Dazed and Confused and the powerful John Grisham adaptation of A Time to Kill. However, once he achieved sex-symbol status and hit superstardom, he started taking cheap roles in mediocre fare like the painful Failure to Launch with Sarah Jessica Parker. For most of the 2000’s, his movies were shallow and unfunny.
After a series of pathetic pictures that redefined futility, including Surfer Dude, Fool’s Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, McConaughey starred in the career-altering movie The Lincoln Lawyer. In the film, he plays a slick lawyer named Mickey Haller who gets in over his head with a rich playboy accused of rape and murder. For the first time in years, McConaughey was carrying a dramatic movie solely on his back. It was also his first deathly serious performance in a long time, in what would eventually become his best-reviewed movie in a decade, according to Rotten Tomatoes. Much like the popular 1996 film A Time to Kill, in which he also played a lawyer involved in a controversial case, the movie relies on McConaughey’s character’s inner demons to be put to bed before he can truly crack the case. From the opening scenes of the film, in which his character negotiates terms with members of a biker gang, it’s clear that McConaughey isn’t here to goof around with his shirt off. He delivers his lines with intensity and zeal, commanding the screen and bouncing off his fellow actors with ease.
The film kick-started McConaughey’s new career trajectory and turned some heads, as NPR’s Ella Taylor put best in her review: “Just when you thought Matthew McConaughey had settled into pre-retirement content to play the (dry-aged) beefcake in a string of dippy romantic comedies, the actor comes roaring back with some real acting.” Critics all agreed that McConaughey was back in the conversation now, and he had made a huge splash—but he wasn’t done there.
Although the movie didn’t make a lot of money, film gurus and movie directors praised McConaughey’s work. Curtis Hanson, director of L.A. Confidential, said that McConaughey was “better than ever,” and that he hopes “to see more of it in the future.” Little did Hanson know, McConaughey’s best of 2012 was yet to come.
McConaughey’s Dallas is an incredible character to follow during the course of this movie; he’s so smooth on stage but so mysterious off it. While a father figure to many of his strippers, he’s also an underhanded businessman on the side, and McConaughey plays it so well that you never know what to expect from his enigmatic character. For the first time in his life, McConaughey got Oscar buzz for his performance.
It’s no secret that the film business is a tough business, and if you’re an actor, you have to be careful if you want to stay in the spotlight. Over the years, careers in Hollywood have risen and fallen at the hands of poor decision-making. Nicolas Cage, once a respected and revered actor, has become a punch line, and Lindsay Lohan, once a box office draw, lost all credibility after she flushed her personal life down the toilet and made movies like Herbie: Fully Loaded. McConaughey, on the other hand, is heading in the opposite direction. After a recent string of great roles in great movies, his career has been revived— nobody knows, or can wait for, what’s next. All I know is that he’s totally pulled a 180, and I think that along with Leonardo DiCaprio, Denzel Washington and Sean Penn, he’s right up there with the best American actors working today. The future looks bright—here’s looking at you, Matt.
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