Now Playing: Michael Clayton
James Meece
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Features
As we enter Oscar season and the theatres are finally flooded with good movies with plots instead of summer blockbusters with explosions, viewers need to look for a movie like "Michael Clayton." A compelling movie with great acting and enough intensity to keep the audience interested from the beginning to the very last scene.
"Michael Clayton" seems to be the role that George Clooney was born to play. He is a cool, suave New York City lawyer, who will do anything for money. Perfect suit, expensive car, divorced, pretty much everything that comes with the territory of being a big city lawyer. Sure he is a regular guy - takes his son to school every day - but he happens to have a slight dark side. We learn very early on in the film that Clayton is indebted $75,000 due to a failed bar. He also has a reoccurring gambling problem, the first time we see him he is at a poker table.
Clayton is a clean up lawyer for big corporations, as in, where there is a potential, embarrassing problem that executives must get out of, he is the one that is called in. One example of such a problem is in the beginning, where a man has performed a hit and run. Clayton is supposed to be the best at his job, as one client refers to him as, "a miracle worker."
After an initial setup of all the problems in Clayton's life, and an understanding of what exactly it is he does, all the elements of the main plot start to come together. Clayton is called to Milwaukee, after his bi-polar colleague, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), decides he can't stand to work on his case anymore, so then decides to strip naked at a deposition and run around the parking lot.
Clayton, who has dealt with Edens before when he goes off his medication, is the clear choice to, once again, clean up an embarrassing situation. Through Clayton's and Edens' conversation, we learn that he is working on a lawsuit defending a corporation's product which has killed hundreds of people.
We learn that Edens really has evidence proving that the corporation he is defending is guilty, and is considering turning it over to the opposition.
"Michael Clayton" seems to be the role that George Clooney was born to play. He is a cool, suave New York City lawyer, who will do anything for money. Perfect suit, expensive car, divorced, pretty much everything that comes with the territory of being a big city lawyer. Sure he is a regular guy - takes his son to school every day - but he happens to have a slight dark side. We learn very early on in the film that Clayton is indebted $75,000 due to a failed bar. He also has a reoccurring gambling problem, the first time we see him he is at a poker table.
Clayton is a clean up lawyer for big corporations, as in, where there is a potential, embarrassing problem that executives must get out of, he is the one that is called in. One example of such a problem is in the beginning, where a man has performed a hit and run. Clayton is supposed to be the best at his job, as one client refers to him as, "a miracle worker."
After an initial setup of all the problems in Clayton's life, and an understanding of what exactly it is he does, all the elements of the main plot start to come together. Clayton is called to Milwaukee, after his bi-polar colleague, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), decides he can't stand to work on his case anymore, so then decides to strip naked at a deposition and run around the parking lot.
Clayton, who has dealt with Edens before when he goes off his medication, is the clear choice to, once again, clean up an embarrassing situation. Through Clayton's and Edens' conversation, we learn that he is working on a lawsuit defending a corporation's product which has killed hundreds of people.
We learn that Edens really has evidence proving that the corporation he is defending is guilty, and is considering turning it over to the opposition.
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