Michael Clayton

Well, October has delivered at a level that has surpassed even my wildest dreams. Although, even I don’t dream about whether or not movies are going to be awesome so the previous sentence was a lie. Following on the heels of Into the Wild, Michael Clayton is another damn near perfect movie. This has become a weekly occurrence for October. This was an incredible character study with what may be the best performance of George Clooney’s career.

Scheming lawyers is just one of those bread and butter stories that show up all the time in movies. What separates Michael Clayton from the pack is that the movie is not centered on a whodunit or whether or not the prosecution will win the case; this is about who Michael Clayton is and what Michael Clayton does. And if there is a better actor to slip into the role of the fixer for a law-firm than George Clooney, I would be impressed by that man too. Clooney has made a career out of fast-talkers with all the answers and this is like the culmination of all those roles. Right from his entrance in the film playing in an underground poker game then traveling out to clean-up a client’s hit and run, you can see the type of man he is and the world that he works in. Before he is sent out to the Midwest to deal with the main problem of the movie, you see Clayton as the divorced dad who sees his son a couple days of the week, his complete financial failure over working with his brother to open a restaurant, along with what he deals with at work which is constant phone calls from people that need him sort shit out. Through all these scenes you can see Clooney’s growing disillusionment with what his life is which only gets worse once he thrust into the middle of the U-North lawsuit. At first Clooney is trying to work the U-North situation like any other problem he has fixed in the past, but as the truth comes out you can see him start to question what he is doing. Watching him work to find and help Arthur then move on to his confrontation with U-North, Clooney is completely in his element. And the credits sequence was a fantastic way to end the story.

Once U-North comes into the picture Clooney starts playing his scenes off of some heavyweights like Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. During nearly every minute of Michael Clayton there is some topnotch dialogue being thrown back and forth. Swinton is amazing as the head of U-North’s legal department who is desperately trying to protect her guilty company by whatever means available. There are multiple scenes showing her rehearse her speeches, spend significant amounts of time making sure her appearance is acceptable, and there is just the right amount of breathlessness to all of her decision-making. And forget it when she and Clooney match-up. There is something amazing about the way that Swinton is constantly on the attack while Clooney is just deflecting everything till he completely destroys her at the end of the movie. From the initial voiceover that starts off the film, Wilkinson’s Arthur Edens is obviously unhinged. Being the lead attorney defending U-North has beaten him down and brought out his psychological issues. But from that point on, you see Clayton putting everything together and finding out that Arthur wasn’t as crazy as he was acting. Wilkinson has some incredible speeches, the opening voiceover, in the alley with Clooney, and the phone call to U-North, and he delivers on each and every one of them. Lastly there is Sydney Pollack. He may have made his name as a director and he may only pop up every once and awhile, but the man is made for these types of roles. He is able to be both Michael’s friend along with cold bastard who is comfortable with people that he defends. There are no weak links in the cast and it pushes Michael Clayton to that top level.

Although I may have seen hundreds of lawyer movies in my lifetime, there was just something special about Michael Clayton. The story was airtight even though it was dependent on a mystery to keep you guessing. This was all about the characters and the performances by George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and Sydney Pollack made the whole package something special. Michael Clayton completely blew away my expectations by being nearly flawless.

10 out of 10