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Michael Clayton
Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed By: Tony Gilroy
Written By: Tony Gilroy
Produced By: Jennifer Fox, Kerry Orent, Sydney Pollack, Steve Samuels
Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe, Merritt Weaver
Review Date: October 28, 2007
Alex's Rating: B- Discuss this Review on the Blog
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More intelligent a John Grisham novel, and more stylized than Law and Order, the new legal thriller Michael Clayton from writer/director Tony Gilroy aims to please fans of the genre. The film lays out the facts and lets you put together a lot of the pieces, leaving you with a conclusion that feels satisfactory, but not necessarily new.
The film stars George Clooney as the title character, a self-titled “fixer” at Kenneth, Bach & Ledeen – one of the countries top law firms. Clayton’s job is essentially to pick up the pieces when other lawyers or big clients screw up, as demonstrated in his task to help a man who hit a jogger with his car and fled the scene. The newest assignment for Clayton is to clean up after his colleague Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) who had a mental breakdown and stripped down naked in a deposition.
Edens is one of the firm’s best lawyers and has been assigned to defend a company called UNorth that is being sued for selling a pesticide that allegedly has killed many people. When he stops taking his medicine Edens has an enlightening and in his own eccentric way turns against the company that he was defending and tries to do what’s right.
Here lies the dilemma as Michael Clayton gets involved he must decide on which side he stands and how much he can trust what the perturbed Edens is telling him.
The characters range from all ends of the moral spectrum. On one end you have Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), the leading partner who puts winning cases before any personal feelings, on the other end you have Anna, the innocent farm girl who has lost family as a result of the pesticide. Michael Clayton would find himself smack dab in the middle as he realizes his own imperfections, yet tries to do his best to right the wrongs.
As a first time director, Tony Gilroy made some interesting style choices. The editing is superb as the quick cuts that occur create a feeling of suspense in otherwise slow-moving sequences. Also, all of the colors in the film have a muted blue-greenish tone as if to imply that the characters are stuck in the middle of the spectrum.
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Gilroy, who wrote all three films in the Bourne trilogy, tries to veer on the side of intellectual thriller rather than action-packed thriller. He was successful in that the film didn’t do all the thinking for me and the film had a satisfactory narrative arc, however I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve seen all this before.
The highlight of the film is in Tom Wilkinson’s performance as Arthur Edens. His monologues are delivered superbly with great control and builds. We never really see how Edens was when he still was on top, but his continual descent into madness was executed brilliantly.
Michael Clayton is a sound legal thriller with great performances at its heart, but as the film was concluding I felt only satisfied. I didn’t leave the theatre talking about what I saw, except that the relationship issues with Clayton’s son were never concluded, which is usually the sign of a less than average thriller.
Bottom Line: See Clayton for the great performances, but don’t expect brilliance from the narrative.
Memorable Quote: "I'm not the guy you kill. I'm the guy you buy off! Are you so blind that you can't see that? I sold out Arthur for 80 grand. I'm your easiest problem and you try to kill me?" -- Michael
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