Michael Clayton (2007)

               Michael Clayton              

NETFLIX SYNOPSIS:  Screenwriter Tony Gilroy makes his directorial debut with this dramatic thriller about burned-out corporate lawyer Michael Clayton (George Clooney), who’s built a career on cleaning up his clients’ messes. When a guilt-ridden colleague (Tom Wilkinson) threatens the settlement of a multimillion-dollar case, Clayton faces his biggest challenge ever. Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack and Michael O’Keefe round out the impressive cast.

REVIEW:  With movies like this one following up on the wonderful Good Night, Good Luck and Syriana, George Clooney has convinced me that he is no ordinary actor, much less a “pretty boy” actor, that is satisfied with doing blockbuster action films to pay off the Italian villa.  While the plot itself is nothing new (an agro-chemical company faces a $3 billion class action from a group of plaintiffs alleging harm from such chemicals), the layout of the plot and the generally wonderful performances of the supporting cast remind me of the pacing of Syriana.

George Clooney is very good here, playing a “fixer” at a prestigious NY firm, but his performance here doesn’t rival that in Syriana or GNGL, which I realize may be an unfair comparison since the plotlines, scope and subject matter of those films were so weighty. He has many great lines – “where would you prefer we meet?  In my car?”  The performance by Sydney Pollack is right on point, playing the powerful partner at the firm with wit and likeability.  But the performance by Wilkinson is ridiculously good as the partner who has lived and breathed the U-North case for the last six years and has begun to, how shall we say, uh, get sick of it?  His breakdown and resulting actions are the engine for the movie’s plot.  I would hope and expect that Wilkinson’s performance puts him in the list of best supporting actor Oscar nods this year.  Tilda Swinton, as U-North’s general counsel, is alright – I like that the film had the idea to portray her as more complex (great scene in the beginning when she’s in the restroom stall and you see her uncharacteristically less than polished, with her wet armpits soaking her otherwise impeccable silk blouse), as insecure and fallible, even as the GC of this huge international corporation, but she still seems a bit one-note in her performance.

4 stars
Audrey

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George Clooney plays the titular Michael Clayton, a Manhattan law firm’s “fixer” who gets all the dirty jobs no one else wants.  When the firm’s senior litigator Arthur Edens does a Howard Beale, taking off his clothes and ranting like a madman during a routine deposition, Clayton gets called in to clean up the mess. Evans is manic-depressive and off his meds but this smells different to Clayton, who’s also dealing with personal problems of his own. The story gets jumpy, desperately head-faking and jab-stepping to no effect while the conclusion is pretty obvious the whole time.  The story, direction and acting are all solid, but not great, as the Oscar nominations would have you believe.

4 stars
HAWK