...a topflight psychological thriller.
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Note: In the following HD DVD and DVD Combo edition joint review, both John and Jason provide their opinions of the movie, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Thoughts.
The Film According to John:
You've heard it before, but it bears repeating: With his chiseled good looks, dashing charm, and proven acting chops, George Clooney is the closest thing Hollywood has at the moment to an old-fashioned glamorous movie star. He's today's Cary Grant. However, while Grant was primarily known for his roles in lightweight romances, screwball comedies, and Hitchcock thrillers, Clooney has gone a step further, demonstrating his talents in comedy and drama with equal skill. He has alternated parts in projects like "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" "Intolerable Cruelty," and the three "Ocean's" movies with "The Perfect Storm," "Good Night, and Good Luck," "Syriana," "The Good German," and the 2007 film we're discussing here, "Michael Clayton," which may his best starring vehicle to date.
Like Clooney, the movie "Michael Clayton" is a bit of a throwback itself. It suggests the courtroom dramas and conspiracy-theory flicks of the 1970s and 80s. It's something of John Grisham meets "Three Days of the Condor," although, as the director points out in his commentary, the movie never goes near a courtroom. And to be certain we know who's at the center of "Michael Clayton," we get the main character's name in the title. To help further understand the nature of the film, consider that its writer and director, Tony Gilroy, also wrote the screenplays for "Dolores Claiborne," "The Devil's Advocate," "Extreme Measures," and the three "Bourne" films.
Clooney stars as a New York City lawyer, Michael Clayton, whose job in a top-drawer, big-bucks law firm is working as a "fixer." His job is far more important to the firm than that of any mere lawyer because he's the go-to guy when clients or other lawyers are in a jam. He's the fellow with all the right connections, all the inside knowledge, all the ways to fix a problem of any kind, legal or otherwise. The irony is that Michael can't fix the problems in his own life. He's divorced, he sees his young son on weekends and in the mornings when he drives him to school, he's in debt to mob-related loan sharks for a failed restaurant that his alcoholic brother Timmy (David Lansbury) talked him into, and he hasn't got the money to pay them back. Amidst these crises, he discovers that his law firm is up to its assets in crooked dealings with a big corporation that is poisoning people with their product and murdering people who get in their way. The question is what Michael will do about all of this when he finds out about it. It's a moral dilemma the likes of which Michael, who has always been on somewhat ambiguous footing in terms of his personal ethics, has never faced before.
This is a movie one can enjoy as much or more for its acting as for its plot. Clooney is terrific as the morally compromised lawyer who may have one last chance at redemption. I've heard it said that acting on the big screen requires subtlety, that the simplest glance or the faintest gesture is magnified a hundredfold in widescreen; if so, then Clooney understands the principle. Just study the looks on his face during the movie's closing credits, and you'll see a world of meaning there. Unlike, say, Daniel Day-Lewis, who puts in a fine, Oscar-winning, but one-note performance in another of 2007's talked-about pictures, "There Will Be Blood," Clooney delivers a many faceted and totally nuanced portrait of a man whose sense of propriety is in turmoil and who must decide how to adapt to it. The changes on him register by the minute.
Then there are two supporting players to die for. Tom Wilkinson plays Arthur Edens, a fellow lawyer at Michael's law firm. For six years he represented a giant chemical conglomerate, United Northfield, against a three-billion-dollar class-action lawsuit brought against them for knowingly selling cancer-causing fertilizers. But Arthur uncovers evidence that U-North actually knew all along that they were poisoning people, and he cannot live with it. He turns sides, starting to build a case against his own client. Wilkinson is brilliant in the role, half nuts, half fox. His opening monologue is both funny and frightening at the same time.
Furthermore, there is Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder, a top executive and chief counsel at U-North, who is basically the attack dog for the company. It's wonderful watching her scheme, claw, calculate, and sweat. Literally. Plus, it's always good to see actor/director Sydney Pollack in action, here playing the exasperated boss of Michael's law firm.
"Michael Clayton" doesn't have the easiest plot line to follow, as it tends to skip around in time and place among characters and events, but it's worth being drawn into the story, thinking about it, and figuring it out. And it does all come together beautifully at the finish. Although the narrative builds slowly, it's worth one's concentration. Trust me, it has one of the most satisfying endings of any movie of the year.
Trivia: The movie earned seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director (Gilroy), Best Actor (Clooney), Best Supporting Actor (Wilkinson), Best Supporting Actress (Swinton), Best Music (James Newton Howard), and Best Writing (Gilroy), with only Ms. Swinton winning for her supporting role.
John's film rating: 8/10
The Film According to Jason:
"Michael Clayton" is one of the rare movies from Hollywood that requires the audience to think about the action on screen, connect all the story's dots, and draw their own conclusion from the available information. Central to this process is a confrontation between George Clooney's title character and Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) at the end of the film. What, exactly, is Clayton's role in the preceding events? How much was he in on? And why is the story so ambiguous as to confuse the viewer long after the final credits have left the screen?
Michael Clayton is a fixer, a man who is called in when a situation requires a below-the-board solution at his law firm. When the lead litigator on the U-North case--a chemical company accused of not following safety protocols--goes off the rails, Clayton is assigned to clean up the mess. What he finds is a respected attorney compiling evidence of U-North's guilt and a winding conspiracy he never imagined.
Too many films these days connect the dots for the audience by the end of the picture by using a quick montage or another similarly silly technique. Sometimes, a wrap-up is even thrown in for the appearance of being a complex drama when, in reality, we've been following along just fine the entire time. "Michael Clayton" is a breed of movie that asks us to keep up with the story and characters, the twists and turns, even the subplots that don't mean anything in the end. Take, for example, Clayton's family conundrums. One brother is a cop, another is a deadbeat who owes Clayton large sums of money for a bankrupt bar...none of which means anything in the grand scheme of things.
That is the pseudo-brilliance of "Michael Clayton": It strays from the main story, yet it never loses sight of U-North. Every seemingly extraneous storyline feeds into developing Clayton's character. He's morally ambiguous, loyal, good at what he does…and a sucker. Clayton differs from other lawyers in that he trusts too much, especially in the case of his friend and fellow litigator Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson). The expectation is that the lawyer works for the client and doesn't have a moral compass to guide his decisions.
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