Michael Clayton

In this blog entry, I have decided to promote one of my all-time favorite movies, Michael Clayton. 

This movie is for anyone who would enjoy an intelligent thriller that deals with the corruption of large cooperate businesses.  I will also touch on the main reason why I think this movie is so amazing: the acting.

Here is a quick overview of the movie:

George Clooney plays Michael Clayton, the “Fixer”, a kind of free agent that cleans up the dirty messes that corporate clients can tend to leave behind. This is a world-weary man if there ever was one, plagued by a gambling problem, family issues, mounting debt, and now one of the biggest messes he’s ever encountered, involving a close friend of his, Arthur Edens, played by Tom Wilkinson. Edens has been working on a case that will cement the prestigious career of Tilda Swinton’s character, Karen Crowder, head of a new eco-company called U-North, but apparently something fishy is going on and Clayton is called in to clean up the mess left behind.

The movie literally begins with a bang, in which we see a car bomb go off in Clayton’s car as he is standing on the side of a hill several hundred feet away. Then we flash back to four days earlier, where we will eventually find out what in the world brought us to that point. The difference between the Clayton at the very beginning of the film and the Clayton ten minutes later is massive. And it is mostly due to George Clooney’s brilliance as an actor. But first, I would like to commend the other actors in the movie.

Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder plays her corrupt-hearted character with a kind of sensitive portrayal that almost makes you sympathize with her for a while, but then she does or says something horrific that makes you go back to despising her. Tom Wilkinson plays Arthur Edens with extreme (almost too extreme) intensity, portraying him as a man on the edge of sanity whose world has just been turned upside down. Wilkinson also does some phenomenal narrating at the beginning of the film that literally gives you goose bumps. You have no idea what he is talking about at the time, but then it all makes sense about halfway through the movie.

Michael Clayton’s best strength is unquestionably the acting. These are all such amazing actors doing such phenomenal work that the performances alone will keep your eyes glued to the screen. The story is so engrossing and it challenges you to actually pay attention to specific details and people, as opposed to the typical simplistic plot that Hollywood is so used to giving out. It is at times too challenging to keep up with the plot. There is a lot of legal babble that will confuse you and leave you wondering what the heck happened, unless you’re paying close attention. Even if you never look away from the screen and keep your ears tuned to every line of dialogue, you’re bound to get lost at some point. The first time I watched it I was lost for a whole 30 minutes in the middle of the film. But I eventually caught up with the plot.

There is one last thing I'd like to mention about the movie. There’s a scene, with absolutely no dialogue, that goes on for three to five minutes, in which we watch Clooney’s face, which occupies more than half the screen. There’s no sound except the for taxi that he’s riding in. It’s three of the most intriguing minutes I’ve seen in a film for years, and some of the best acting too. As we sit and watch Clooney, we notice a very slow and gradual change in his facial expressions. I won't give away why he is going through this kind of emotional roller coaster at the end, but Clooney's ability to pull of so many emotions and still make it look believable, in one take mind you, is amazing. He goes from terrified, to saddened, to sobering, and then in the last 10 seconds of the film, he has a kind of realization and ends the film looking exhilarated. 

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates good acting, and enjoys movies that make you think.