Michael Clayton Review

Having already seen three of the films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards (and having plans to see "There Will Be Blood" very soon), when I saw commercials touting the return of "Michael Clayton" to theatres to cash in on its 7 Oscar nominations, I figured it'd be a good idea to check it out so I could actually make some informed picks (a nice change of pace for me) when I fill out my Oscar ballot.

George Clooney stars as Michael Clayton, former first-round pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who's been mostly a gigantic disappointment after a great rookie season. At least that's what I thought going in. Instead, he plays it safe by portraying an attorney who serves as a "fixer" for a major law firm in New York City.

His next major crisis is cleaning up after the firm's most brilliant attorney, Arthur Edens (Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson), who recently suffered an apparent mental breakdown and went full monty in the middle of a deposition. Led by chief counsel Karen Crowder(Oscar nominee Tilda Swinton), U/North, the agrichemical and morally questionable company Arthur is defending, is desperate for results, especially after Arthur — in his new state of mind — becomes a threat to their billion-dollar case.

The beauty of the movie is how Tony Gilroy (who wrote the tight script and handled the efficient and effective direction) handles these three main characters.

Clooney makes for a very solid and effective anchor in what is probably the best work of his career (definitely better than his Oscar winning performance in "Syriana"). He doesn't have any big speeches or emotional outbursts to play with — he only really lets loose once and it's toward the end of the film. But Gilroy gives his character just enough (a gambling problem, a failed business) for Clooney to play with under the surface (and he does so beautifully) and help make his character's actions more believable.

Most of the subtlety that Clooney shows is mostly blasted to pieces by Wilkinson who plays a brilliant man whose life has been turned upside down. Of course, the great joke of the movie is that, while everyone thinks that Arthur is "losing it", he's the only person who's actually found his conscience and is trying to do the right thing. Wilkinson does a great job of conveying the crazy, while also letting us see hints of the brilliant lawyer he's supposed to be. Sydney Pollack — who I'm enjoying more as an actor than as a director — also turns in very good work as Clayton's boss.

But maybe what I enjoyed the most was his portrayal of Karen, the (seemingly) tough-as-nails counsel. The thing is, we've seen dozens of portrayals of this icy sort of woman in power suit who struts in, is hyper-articulate, make some sort of cutting remark about a man's penis size and then leaves. Gilroy shows us that Karen is intensely insecure about her professional abilities and about her body (Swinton gained some weight for the role). I KNOW a lot of women are insecure about their bodies, but not too many writers/directors SHOW us — especially not in a movie like this. Swinton does terrific work.

In fact, her work (and Wilkinson's) is so good that I'll overlook their English accents occasionally (and distractingly) poking through every once in a while. Why not just make the characters English?

Anyway, Gilroy somehow manages to both take time to develop each of the main characters AND keep the movie interesting and moving forward. That results in the occasional shortcuts where it becomes hard to follow who's who or what is happening with the lawsuit.

In the end, while it's not the kind of movie audiences will love and throw their arms around, it's an extremely well-made movie with great acting (the only movie to score more than one Oscar acting nomination), writing and directing that is almost certainly more interesting than a biopic of the Bucs' Michael Clayton would have been.

Michael Clayton...A-