Review of Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton(George Clooney) is an attorney for a law firm in New York City. He's Satan's go-getter and is a shark that attach's it's teeth on the case and doesn't let go until i's completely drained of blood--no stragglers, or visible leavings. Clayton is a man who understands there are rules that can be bent, and for a price, he's the one to bend them. An efficient amount of time in the film is devoted to let us know that there are men in New York who seem well suited to the upper-class environment on the outside; sport coats, ties, trench coats, but inside they are ready to pounce on the prey. Director Tony Gilroy (who's the soul beneficiary of credit for the script and direction) does wonders with the tone of the film; and is never off-beat. Keen wit and sharp moral satire of men and woman of tight balances between work and personal lives. Thus making a point of people who take their work home with them in their head, and suffer grammatically while itching to get back to work. Producing was done by Sydney Pollak, Steve Samuels, among others, they do a great over-all job. Executive producers include Clooney, Steven Soderbergh and Anthony Minghella. The plot focus' in on the life of Clayton, but sort of veers off into a multiple protagonist storyline that begins to explore the emotional depths of these persons without souls, one in particular, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) who has a chemical imbalance that prescription drugs can seize, but personal life and work can't. And, as the plot develops, we see that the fellow that's not-all-there is struggling to keep a lid on his uncontrollable outrage toward the business. Now looky here, we have a Tilda Sweedon-- who's honestly never done better, in a role that rivals Cate Blanchette's Bob Dylan-- who plays Karen Crowder, a fine-and-dandy little company called U-North's chief counsel, who discovers that the crazy-guy has found evidence that U-North has bad crap that causes cancer, and is planning to do something with it, her first instinct is rash, but these executive decisions usually are. She has two big dudes follow and basically probe Arthur Edens to death, and following the passing of Arthur, Crowder thinks she's off the hook, but your never off the hook when Michael Clayton is on the prowl. He smells something wrong with her and jumps at the opportunity to do something about it. But I've gotten ahead of myself, prior these fun little folk-tales, Arthur,in a fit of craziness at a business meeting, he strips down and runs outside only to be arrested and begin a chain-reaction that ends up in a great little family-friendly multi-billion dollar case. When you have a multi-billion dollar case, Who do you call? Ghostbusters? Transformers? Oprah? Nope! Michael Clayton, silly. He takes care of things as usual, until they get a little deeper then just another court-case that'll be on TV in a few days, but transform into something of a personal awakening for good ol' Mickey, who'll benefit in ways he never dreamed of. Need I say more? I doubt it. Michael Clayton is the year's best legal thriller, although among precious few, it holds many key cinematic gems and sub-messages that There Will Be Blood and Juno don't. There are things those masterpieces have Clayton doesn't. But listen up: Michael Clayton is a badass who could care less if a few people are weed-whacked on the job, but in the end, when Michael leaves the hotel after taking care of business(just to inform you, kickass Clayton turns around and does something good, takes care of the old witch that killed the crazy guy who, believe it or not, made the most sense in the movie), and gets in a cab and speeds off, thinking about the turn of events that occurred here, perhaps he liked doing something good, something right right for the first time in his sandy career as a shark that liked to swim close to the shore line, so-to-speak. Michael Clayton is a legal thriller and character-driven drama that exposes corporate boo-boos and when those boo-boos get called on by "the fixer" Michael Clayton. Clooney gives a captivating performance that, unlike his role in Syriana, shakes the viewer to the bone. The third best picture of the year. By: Greg Decaire