Michael Clayton

Release date: October 5, 2007
Directed by: Tony Gilroy
Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack

As a prestige picture, Michael Clayton hits all the right notes for George Clooney. You can pick out the parts that would be shown in an Oscar montage, and the actor aces each scene with ease. The problem is, the movie's narrative does nothing to draw the audience in, and Clooney and the supporting cast are left on their own to carry the film.

Clooney plays the titular character, a fixer for a prestigious law firm that's undertaking a case on which its reputation rides. While defending an agricultural corporation, one of the firm's lawyers, Arthur Edens (Wilkinson), discovers that the company knowingly permitted use of a carcinogenic pesticide. Having a sudden change of heart, Edens' revelation threatens to blow the case his firm has been working on for six years, and it's Clayton's job to keep him under control. When a corporate executive (Swinton) catches wind of this, she goes out of her way to make sure this information doesn't get leaked.

Do You Hear Something?
The movie deals mainly with Clayton struggling to make all the pieces of his life fit together. In addition to cleaning up the mess around the case and his own guilt associated with it, he must solve financial troubles of his own while raising his son. Director Tony Gilroy touches on all of these subjects, but he does so with such a passive, perfunctory tone that Clooney's character never actually resonates with the audience.

Instead of letting the audience empathize with Clayton, we really only see him as a burnt-out shell of a person. It's hard not to like Clooney, but Gilroy doesn't give him much to work with. Sure, we're on his side, but only by default. Wilkinson gives a great performance as the eccentric, guilt-stricken lawyer, but his character is too over-the-top to connect with.

Tilda Swinton gets the shortest end of the stick. Though her performance is easily the strongest, we're hardly given a reason to see her as an antagonist aside from the movie's blatantly obvious message that "corporations are evil and will do anything to get their way." It's hardly a new or daring message to be sending, but Gilroy positions it as the centerpiece of the film.

Far too much focus is put on moving the plot forward. Wilkinson and Swinton's characters are made into mere periphery figures, and most of the slack is placed on Clooney. While this could have been a brilliant, character-driven piece that gave the cast enough time to showcase their talents, Clooney is saddled with a character we're not given much of an opportunity to truly care about.