MICHAEL CLAYTON
Director: Tony Gilroy Stars: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
Reviewed by GREG KING
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a legal fixer, who negotiates convenient solutions to tricky legal cases. But he is also a morally conflicted burnt out case with mounting personal problems. But even he finds himself out of his depth when brought in to resolve a long running and complex class action suit against a pesticide company accused of poisoning people in rural America.
Veteran lawyer Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) has spent several years preparing the defence for the large corporation, but eventually the case takes its toll on him. He has a breakdown in the middle of an important deposition that threatens the resolution of the case and the reputation of Eden’s firm. Clayton is sent in to manage damage control, but he soon begins to suspect that the chemical company is involved in illegal activities and even murder to help facilitate a massive cover-up. His conscience is pricked and he is forced to take a stand and deliver justice.
Clooney seems suitably tired, cynical and dyspeptic as the hero of the piece, and his role here bears some similarities to his reluctant hero of Syriana. Wilkinson delivers his usual reliable and strong performance as a lawyer who falls apart under the pressures of a job he has come to despise. Tilda Swinton is wonderfully controlled as Karen Crowder, the cold hearted lawyer of U-North, who is trying to negotiate a satisfactory conclusion to the class action suit. Sydney Pollack also plays a key role as the head of the law firm.
Michael Clayton is a cynical, down beat and unnecessarily convoluted thriller that heralds the directorial debut from Tony Gilroy, best known for penning the Bourne trilogy. While moderately suspenseful, this lacks the relentless pace and energy of those films. Along the way Gilroy delivers an arch criticism of corporate greed, but ultimately this legal thriller seems like light-weight John Grisham. The film is also sprinkled with touches of paranoia that hark back to some of those classic ‘70’s thrillers like Three Days Of The Condor, The Parallax View and The Conversation.
**1/2
Reviewed by PETER MALONE
This is a drama for those who really enjoy the novels, say, of John Grisham. It deals with lawyers, fixers, corrupt companies, class actions and deceit concerning products that damage human life. It is also a drama about family and the complex elements all come together with justice being finally done. It was written and directed by Tony Gilroy who was responsible for the story of The Bourne Ultimatum. Like this thriller, Michael Clayton also shows a great deal about surveillance, industrial espionage and the technology for destruction.
Michael Clayton, played with less glamour by George Clooney, is a 45 year old part success but seeming whole loser in his life and profession. He is an expert fixer for a legal firm and has the skill to come in, assess a situation and go into action. However, when an associate (Tom Wilkinson) has a breakdown, he finds that he is unable to help him. Part of the breakdown concerns his six years of being devoted to demolishing a class action against a powerful chemical company (represented by a rather sinister Tilda Swinton).
The opening of the film leads to some immediate interest and suspense and then the screenplay moves back to four days earlier to build up again and move through the legal crises, the deal crises as well as to spend some time on Michael Clayton's personal problems and those of his son and his brothers.
The film is dark, serious and thought provoking in that Grisham kind of way (which is a compliment) and has a strong supporting cast including Sydney Pollack as the head of the legal firm.