FILM & DVD Review
Title: Michael Clayton
Studio: Warner Brothers
Director: Tony Gilroy
Principal Actors: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
DVD Released: February 19^th 2008
Length: 119 Minutes

3 Stars

Reviewed By: Kindah Mardam Bey

A political drama that would make Robert Redford proud, Michael Clayton has enough veiled intrigue, car bombings and hidden information to make this film more of a documentary then a date-night flick. Clooney works in substance, as so few actors do these days. Films he targets are about ‘the system,' (once referred to as ‘the man') and how we are being manipulated, cajoled, and lied to by it. Since the 60s, not much has changed, in fact, since the dawn of time not much has changed. The sinister midnight boardroom meetings are becoming more a part of business than people want to know about. Forget the casting couch, Michael Clayton is a film about the degredation of the human spirit after ‘performing' on the casting couch.

Meet Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), he's a big corporate lawyer who is off his meds and has managed to strip naked at a testimonial and then proceed to carry on the striptease down into the parking lot while spewing insanity. Don't be deceived by this Hamlet replica, he has deeper intentions at hand, and a somewhat savant spirit he finds hard to control. The problem is that Edens knows the truth about the corporate legal matter he has been assigned to for six years and now he's reached his limit and wants to expose the lies and deceit. Edens wants to get all his ducks in a row before he brings an empire down, but he seems to have uncharacteristically committed suicide in the meantime. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) smells a rat.

Clayton is Edens work associate and close friend. Edens won't even tell Clayton what he's got up his sleeve, but a girl in a Midwest home knows Edens truth and when Ruth and Clayton eventually come face to face, she has enough information to send Clayton on the trail of lies and truths and which leads where. Tilda Swinton, in her Oscar winning performance as Karen Crowder, corporate go-between isn't used to dealing with such loose cannons as Edens and she becomes quite villainous her desire to cover up the facts. The cat and mouse between Clayton, Edens and Crowder is where the mystery unfolds. Michael Clayton isn't a thriller, it isn't a Bourne Supremacy chase down, but it is an intense emotional roller-coaster of deceptions.

The final showdown between Swinton and Clooney is performed incredibly well and makes for a fitting heated climax. She deserves an Oscar, but Swinton has a brilliant career of performances that excelled this one; it felt a little like a back-log Oscar for greater performances done previous. Whatever way you spin it, Swinton deserves an Oscar and thanks to Michael Clayton she received one. Tom Wilkinson and George Clooney were both fantastic in their character portrayals, which was a feat as both men play incredibly complex people. It was also such a delight to see Producer Sydney Pollack perform in front of the camera he normally Directs behind. It was really Tony Gilroy's baby though as it is his first hyphenate as writer-director. When an actor directs, or a writer directs, they are always a great combination as they know the film inside and out; everything gets elevated, from performance, to production.

Michael Clayton received some great reviews and it is a noteworthy film, but I can't help feeling that I've seen it done before, I've seen it done better, and I've seen it with Robert Redford in the lead. However, that would be the only downside to Michael Clayton.