Michael Clayton

Director: Tony Gilroy

Starring: George Clooney, Sydney Pollack, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson

A clever legal thriller with a pace that perfectly fits the highly character based plot.

This is fantastic performance from George Clooney as the legal ‘fixer’ of the title, whose job involves clearing up complicated and messy cases for corporate clients. The film opens with a visit to a colleague’s troublesome client, which ends in a near death experience for Clayton.

Flash back to four days earlier. Clayton discovers that one of the leading attorneys in his firm (Wilkinson) is having a mental breakdown, brought on by a lack of medication, or perhaps a fit of conscience…. His suicide seems to many to be a natural consequence, but Clayton becomes suspicious and ends up in the middle of a very tangled web of unethical business practice.

Clooney’s character is far more complex than most of the others, and as a result he outshines the lot of them. However, Tom Wilkinson is also notable as the unstable Arthur Edens, and Tilda Swinton is very well cast as Karen Crowder. What could have been a stereotypical soulless-corporate-beast character is given a whole other dimension of vulnerability.

Now this is an intelligent film, so make sure brain is switched on before entering the cinema. It involves seriously thought-provoking issues about the morals and scruples of corporate America, although its messages are generally very subtly put across. Clooney is clearly sticking to his political filmmaking guns.

The plot demands that you pay attention throughout. Listen carefully to every word that comes out of these character’s mouths or you’ll lose it completely.

Most importantly, don’t be afraid of it. Michael Clayton provides a refreshing alternative to the current trend of films that run at breakneck speed and cram in far too many ridiculous plot twists. When you come out you will feel like a proper clever grown up. Promise.

Steph Janes