Dvd
Michael Clayton
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 the firm’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.
Starring George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, Sean Cullen, Michael O’Keefe
Directed by Tony Gilroy (Feature debut)
Written by Tony Gilroy
Festivals & Awards Best Supporting Actress (Swinton) at the Academy Awards and BAFTAs in 2008
Thriller | 2hr 0mins | Rated (M) | Contains Violence & Offensive Language | Origin: USA | Official Site »
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The Talk
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Flicks review
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3
A terrifically acted character study that offers little else to reward the movie-goer, except perhaps a nagging sense of being an idiot.
As a technical exercise in its genre, Michael Clayton is excellent. The script is tight, the direction is flashy, the cinematography is cold, and the acting is uniformly good. It’s a shame that, despite this, the film never rises above ticking the boxes, and ends up as a moderately entertaining legal thriller that has a story branded with the dreaded ‘C’ word – Conventionality.
George Clooney is at his best, trading in his matinee-idol goofy charm to become a beleaguered workaholic with an unpleasant divorce being the least of his regrets. Opposite him are Tom Wilkinson as a brilliant attorney turned mad (mad, or just passionate?), and Tilda Swinton as an unattractive career woman (‘career woman’ doesn’t qualify the unattractiveness - she’s just cold). Swinton’s performance is the film’s best; when we first meet her, she’s rehearsing a speech in the mirror, and we never quite get to see a true personality under that blank façade until fear flashes in her eyes.
Tony Gilroy’s plot (scripter of all Bourne films) is engaging enough, but tries to disguise its conventionality with mysterious lines of dialogue and obscure back-stories. The first thirty minutes, in particular, are difficult to follow. Such narrative complexity grows tiresome.
To make matters worse, there’s an early flashback scene where Michael suddenly jumps out of his car to look at some horses. Anyone hoping that this will be explained later will be sorely disappointed. Is it a moment of deep metaphor, or does Michael just have an aesthetic appreciation of fine equine beasts - he must be a tortured artiste underneath. There is no reason for this, and in a legal thriller where everything is ‘real’ and ‘practical’, it’s most certainly a low point.
The horse-thing may seem minor, but plot-wise it’s crucial. And the randomness of said event underlines the weakness in a script that takes itself far too seriously and never once realizes that it’s just a simple evil-corportation-legal-thriller; well made, but no more useful than Erin Brockovich or countless others.
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The people's reviews
6 reviews
Press Reviews
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BBC
3
Corporate evil plots are nothing to write home about, but what lifts Michael Clayton are the star turns from Clooney, Wilkinson and finally Tilda Swinton's hard-ass litigator for U-North. Similarly, those in charge of cinematography, editing and music all do their job with large doses of polish. It's all very smooth, but the problem is it's also a bit anodyne and unlikely to hold up in comparisons to Clooney's other 'serious' films, whose stories have more to offer underneath the polish...
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Christchurch Press [Margaret Agnew]
4
It's all held together by the magnetic presence of George Clooney, however, who manages to be compelling even when he's just sitting in the back of a taxi, staring straight ahead.
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Dominion Post [Linda Burgess]
3
There's nothing wrong with this slick, much-plaudited movie – how can there be when Time magazine's film critic named it his best from last year? But what was most fascinating about it for me was that in a world of indecent salaries and vast bonuses there's a job that exists like Clayton's – smoothing things out, match- making client and lawyer – and that in this movie at least it was paid relatively badly.
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Empire Magazine [UK]
3
This offers moments of suspense, some pointed scenes and star charisma, but it’s also a touch confused. Heads will be scratched before they roll.
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Hollywood Reporter
As with the Bourne films, Gilroy has a knack for creating strong characters and situations that resonate with tension. It may be formula, but the guy is a solid chemist as he crafts excellent set-ups and payoffs...
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TV3 [Kate Rodger]
4
1/2 a taut psychological thriller with crisp killer dialogue and complete with one of the most satisfying endings in a long time.
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Variety [USA]
Features strong performances and a solid story, drawn from the familiar well of faceless corporations grinding ordinary people through their profit-making machinery. Yet Gilroy's fidelity to his script comes at the expense of the pacing...
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