Michael Clayton
The Truth Can Be Adjusted
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house "fixer" at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of Kenner, Bach&Ledeen’s dirtiest work at the behest of the firm’s co-founder Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). Though burned out and hardly content with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class action suit that Clayton’s firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach’s brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life.
Member Reviews
Brutal - RobBC
Michael Clayton is a janitor of sorts. He’s a company lawyer who specializes in clearing the names of guilty clients as long as they have the cash to pay for it. It’s not that he’s an evil man, but his personal values are often forced to take a backseat to the financial pressures imposed by his messy divorce, failed business venture, and expensive gambling addiction. His professional life is a high-pressured mix of dubious ethics and legal loopholes aimed more at maximizing company profits than insuring justice is done. But when one of his esteemed colleagues suffers a mental meltdown it jars him out of his own moral paralysis and he is forced to confront the creature he has become. This is a brutal and despairing film that is as infuriating as it is mesmerizing. Shot in somber hues of blue and grey it presents us with a bleak corporate landscape filled with lost souls and an all-consuming hunger...for money, for power, for prestige. Yet there are unexpected moments of purity amidst the debris; the plot of a child’s fantasy novel provides a mystical subtext to the main story for instance, and Clayton’s sudden epiphany on a mist-shrouded hillside has an undeniable spiritual intensity to it. When the ending came it was not unexpected, but I found myself on the edge of my seat just the same. Michael Clayton may not be a unique film but it is written with great style and intelligence, not to mention the wonderful performances. Very well done.Two Superb Performances - Stitch
And an adequate one from George Clooney. But Tilda Swinton as the in-house corporate attorney does an arresting portrayal of a top drawer professional hounded by self-doubt--she well deserved her Oscar for best supporting performance by an actress. A delicate task it is, to humanize ultra-ambition and yet show what it can drive decent people to do. No demonizing--and it must have been a temptation.
Tom Wilkinson has a juicier part calling for varied personas. He also earned a best supporting actor nomination. And not a hint of Yorkshire in his accent!
As some reviewers observed, this film could drag for someone expecting simpler plots, particularly if you have limited interest in corporate machinations. But having some experience in this milieu of outside counsel and class action suits, I feel most scenes are appropriate to the dynamics that fuel these machinations. The plot is a bit over the top at times yet still barely credible and that’s sufficient for this viewer. The cinematography is adequate with a few glaring exceptions, such as the very brief farm scene. Shot from a Christmas card?
The screenplay is intelligent and the dialogue superb--few wasted words and believable in context. Granted the plot is somewhat complex compared to usual Hollywood standards—- plaintiff-and-sister interaction, restaurant fixer bit, the mental disturbance issue. But each do have relevance, however minor. So the film deserves close attention. No snoozing.
You can quibble with the time devoted to his family/financial difficulties but for me it added humanity, providing occasional welcome relief from a dark story. And this element helps us better appreciate Clayton’s reaction to his unsavory options.
An entertaining and absorbing tutorial if you’re interested in how “the system” works--particularly older viewers who've loitered in boardrooms. But not if you're in the mood for a casual helping of light entertainment. It's not funny.Michael Clayton (2007) - andythesaint
I've spent the past week since having seen Michael Clayton trying to come to terms with how a movie that left so little impact or impression on me has wound up receiving near universal praise. It's certainly not a bad movie, but I promise you, it's not as great a movie as critics would have you belief it is either.
The answer I came up with is that Michael Clayton is the kind of movie that used to dominate the cineplex landscape but has all but disappeared of late: the mid-budget adult thriller. With the cost of movies rising, studios basically offer three kinds of movies: the low budget "indie" (distributed by their boutique divisions), the low budget genre movie (horror or comedy), or the big budget tentpole blockbuster. The result has been that there are less and less movies being made for adults, featuring adults doing adult things, so a movie like Michael Clayton ends up looking fresh and original, whereas ten years ago it would have seemed like more of the same.
The movie basically plays out like a standard John Grisham movie, without actually being a Grisham movie, with well-heeled lawyers dealing with machinations of law firms and big corporations. If you've seen similar lawyer/big corporation movies, then this movie won't hold a lot of surprises for you and you should be able to see where it's headed every step of the way. Gilroy, who wrote and directed the movie, loses the plot throughout the movie, wasting time on unnecessary scenes focused on Clayton's family life, failed business dealings, and gambling problem, probably as a means to get star Clooney more time on screen, but resulting in a movie that is probably 20 minutes overlong.
The resulting effort is a workmanlike thriller whose profile is raised slightly by the gravitas given to it be its accomplished cast. But none raise the movie to the level of the praise its been getting, resulting in a decent, albeit largely forgettable, adult thriller.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Brutal - RobBC
Michael Clayton is a janitor of sorts. He’s a company lawyer who specializes in clearing the names of guilty clients as long as they have the cash to pay for it. It’s not that he’s an evil man, but his personal values are often forced to take a backseat ...Two Superb Performances - Stitch
And an adequate one from George Clooney. But Tilda Swinton as the in-house corporate attorney does an arresting portrayal of a top drawer professional hounded by self-doubt--she well deserved her Oscar for best supporting performance by an actress. A delicate ...Michael Clayton (2007) - andythesaint
I've spent the past week since having seen Michael Clayton trying to come to terms with how a movie that left so little impact or impression on me has wound up receiving near universal praise. It's certainly not a bad movie, but I promise you, it's not as ...