Cinema: Famous for Being Famous

Now this actor can be famous for being good

All right. After three years of hype, hokum and ho-hum, we finally get it: Matthew McConaughey has star quality. We weren't so sure back when McConaughey was in every other film and on every other magazine cover. His summer-of-'96 double whammy, A Time to Kill and Lone Star, gave evidence of a gritty, ingratiating talent. But he looked lost amid the more seasoned actors in Amistad, and no one could have brought to sensible life the woozy guru he played in Contact. It seemed as if McConaughey might lapse into ex-hunk obscurity, like those slightly too-good-looking fellows spotted behind a counter...

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