Michael Clayton

This hotly anticipated (at least by me) legal thriller from debutant Tony Gilory, the writer of the Bourne films, pitches 3 actors with 5 Movie Years nominations between them. 3 of those are for the brilliant Tom Wilkinson, who costars in this as the corporate lawyer who goes off his meds and starts having a nervous breakdown. This is not good news for the company that he's representing, UNorth, headed by Tilda Swinton, who are in the middle of a 6 year, 3 billion dollar lawsuit, and probably even worse news for the law firm Wilkinson works for, whose 9 million that UNorth owe is now in jeopardy, not to mention a possible merger with a London firm and all credibility in their own country.

The law firm needs someone to save the day and that someone is Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney, the business's "fixer". Clooney's Clayton is a very interesting character, someone entrusted with fixing very delicate, often high profile situations, but a guy who's own life seems to be in need of fixing itself. He owes 80,000 to people he can't pay after a failed restaurant venture, he's separated from his wife and has a gambling problem that at least partly explains his cashflow troubles. It's refreshing to see a 'hero' as troubled, although this wont be the first time in a review this year that I have praised the efforts of the writers of The Good Shepherd, Zodiac and Breach, who have also brought us screen characters that are layered and interesting. It's been a great year for intelligent thrillers and this continues that pleasing trend.

Clooney is wonderful and totally convincing as Clayton. He enjoys several great scenes throughout the film, 2 notable ones with Wilkinson, and 1 with Swinton that is as satisfying a scene as you'll see all year. The credits roll over a fixed shot of Clooney in a cab and holds on Clooney for a good 3 or 4 minutes. Even here, doing so little, Clooney is totally magnetic as a screen presence that despite the credits rolling on a packed Saturday night, not one person left the theatre until we faded to black.

Wilkinson and Swinton provide more than able support. If I did have a criticism, I'd say it was perhaps too short. At a fraction under 2 hours, I think we could have spent another 20 minutes with these characters, particularly the two Brits who don't get as much screen time as I'd have liked. But it is hard to argue with Gilroy's decision to spend nearly every second with Clooney. It's an intelligent script and wonderfully directed debut effort, which is certainly worth your time and money.

A-