Tony Gilroy's "Michael Clayton" builds slowly at first, but always manages to hold your interest because of a little slide of hand. By giving us a taste of one of the film's action sequences at the beginning, it holds on to the action motivated viewer, even as it forces him or her to pay close attention due to all the twists and turns of the complex plot.
In a nutshell, its the story of a corporate lawyer whose best friend in the firm is handing a billion dollar liability suit against a huge Midwestern corporation, only to discover that the corporate was directly responsible for deaths. But since the law firm is representing the corporation and not the victims, Tom Wilkerson, who plays the friend, finds himself in such a moral dilemma that he mentally jumps the tracks, taking off all his clothes during a deposition and chasing people naked through a parking lot. ( in fairness, he is portrayed as a guy who had been on meds for years and has gone off them, triggering the breakdown.) This forces the firm, headed by Sydney Pollack in his actor mode, to send in Michael Clayton to clean things up. This movie is basically something of a character study of Clayton, who even though he is a lawyer and former prosecutor, is now essentially the fixer and sometimes bag man for this monster size, 600 lawyer, firm. Its a role Hollywood has often explored before, in pictures like "The Barefoot Contessa" and "The Harder they Fall" in the fifties, right up to "Syriana" a few years ago. It seems to be becoming George Clooney's screen persona and in this film he makes the most of it, turning in a riveting performance as a talented guy trying to hold it all together. And he has personal problems of his own, of course, not the least of which is a 75K debt to an apparent loan shark over a restaurant investment that went bad. (This is the film's weakest point, as everyone knows most restaurant investments go bad. That's why they hire guys like MIchael Clayton to find arsonists to burn the places down for the insurance money.)
At any rate, Clooney is just great here and may well get himself an Oscar nomination. Also good acting from Tilda Swenson as a corporate lawyer scared out of her wits most of the time for fear of failing, Wilkerson as the lawyer who goes bonkers and Pollack as the seeming sympathetic boss of the law firm who is as manipulative as they come.
He has one of the films best lines in the end, pointing out to Clooney that of course the corporation is guilty; they always knew that; that's how the law firm makes money, pulling irons out of the fire for companies like that.
Clooney comes back for one final big scene in the end, where he wraps it all up; essentially telling the dishonest corporate types that where they made their big mistake was taking him on. Like most corporate types they were good in a board room fight, but rotten in a street fight. Where as he was a pro at being a crook and was in the end going to out fox them one way or the other.
In a nutshell, its the story of a corporate lawyer whose best friend in the firm is handing a billion dollar liability suit against a huge Midwestern corporation, only to discover that the corporate was directly responsible for deaths. But since the law firm is representing the corporation and not the victims, Tom Wilkerson, who plays the friend, finds himself in such a moral dilemma that he mentally jumps the tracks, taking off all his clothes during a deposition and chasing people naked through a parking lot. ( in fairness, he is portrayed as a guy who had been on meds for years and has gone off them, triggering the breakdown.) This forces the firm, headed by Sydney Pollack in his actor mode, to send in Michael Clayton to clean things up. This movie is basically something of a character study of Clayton, who even though he is a lawyer and former prosecutor, is now essentially the fixer and sometimes bag man for this monster size, 600 lawyer, firm. Its a role Hollywood has often explored before, in pictures like "The Barefoot Contessa" and "The Harder they Fall" in the fifties, right up to "Syriana" a few years ago. It seems to be becoming George Clooney's screen persona and in this film he makes the most of it, turning in a riveting performance as a talented guy trying to hold it all together. And he has personal problems of his own, of course, not the least of which is a 75K debt to an apparent loan shark over a restaurant investment that went bad. (This is the film's weakest point, as everyone knows most restaurant investments go bad. That's why they hire guys like MIchael Clayton to find arsonists to burn the places down for the insurance money.)
At any rate, Clooney is just great here and may well get himself an Oscar nomination. Also good acting from Tilda Swenson as a corporate lawyer scared out of her wits most of the time for fear of failing, Wilkerson as the lawyer who goes bonkers and Pollack as the seeming sympathetic boss of the law firm who is as manipulative as they come.
He has one of the films best lines in the end, pointing out to Clooney that of course the corporation is guilty; they always knew that; that's how the law firm makes money, pulling irons out of the fire for companies like that.
Clooney comes back for one final big scene in the end, where he wraps it all up; essentially telling the dishonest corporate types that where they made their big mistake was taking him on. Like most corporate types they were good in a board room fight, but rotten in a street fight. Where as he was a pro at being a crook and was in the end going to out fox them one way or the other.