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Michael Clayton
A 2007 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Michael Clayton is a complex and claustrophobic legal thriller centered around someone whose personal and professional lives begin to bleed onto each other beyond his control and the identification of the source of these cinematic wounds requires undivided attention from the viewer.
George Clooney earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his slick performance as the title character, a legal "fixer" who specializes in finding remedies for cases that might require a dance around normal legal avenues. Michael is brought on board when another lawyer from the firm is believed to have had a nervous breakdown after going off his meds, in an effort to get him off a class action suit, where the guilt of a chemical company is a certainty.
Director and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, who is the creative force behind the Jason Bourne trilogy, has crafted an edgy and frightening state of the art thriller that doesn't answer all of the questions that it poses, but the ones that it doesn't answer become irrelevant pretty quickly. Gilroy gives the title character an added richness by providing him with a backstory that finds him teetering on the personal edge as well. In addition to his professional problems, Michael also has heavy gambling debts and the bar that he bought is about to go under. Fifteen minutes into the running time, an attempt is made on Michael's life that telegraphs the danger he's in, but does not telegraph where the danger is coming from.
This is another of those thrillers where it's difficult to tell the black hats from the white hats but it's clear no one in this story is safe. Around the halfway point of the film, it has been established that no one in this story has any secrets...everyone involved is being followed or their homes and offices are bugged. Yes, there is a character whose doom is inevitable from his first appearance, but his elimination does move the story into a higher gear. The way Michael's life is on the edge of imploding reminded me of Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems and we wonder how close to the cliff Gilroy is going to take us.
Gilroy provides handsome production values to the story, including some exemplary camerawork that, at times, tells the story by itself. In addition to the Best Picture nomination and Clooney's Lead Actor nomination, Tom Wilkenson's severely damaged Arthur Edens earned him a Supporting Actor nomination and Tilda Winton's morally bankrupt Karen Crowder won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack also impresses as Michael's boss. The movie is hard to follow here and there, but the final payoff is well worth it.
A 2007 Oscar nominee for Best Picture, Michael Clayton is a complex and claustrophobic legal thriller centered around someone whose personal and professional lives begin to bleed onto each other beyond his control and the identification of the source of these cinematic wounds requires undivided attention from the viewer.
George Clooney earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his slick performance as the title character, a legal "fixer" who specializes in finding remedies for cases that might require a dance around normal legal avenues. Michael is brought on board when another lawyer from the firm is believed to have had a nervous breakdown after going off his meds, in an effort to get him off a class action suit, where the guilt of a chemical company is a certainty.
Director and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, who is the creative force behind the Jason Bourne trilogy, has crafted an edgy and frightening state of the art thriller that doesn't answer all of the questions that it poses, but the ones that it doesn't answer become irrelevant pretty quickly. Gilroy gives the title character an added richness by providing him with a backstory that finds him teetering on the personal edge as well. In addition to his professional problems, Michael also has heavy gambling debts and the bar that he bought is about to go under. Fifteen minutes into the running time, an attempt is made on Michael's life that telegraphs the danger he's in, but does not telegraph where the danger is coming from.
This is another of those thrillers where it's difficult to tell the black hats from the white hats but it's clear no one in this story is safe. Around the halfway point of the film, it has been established that no one in this story has any secrets...everyone involved is being followed or their homes and offices are bugged. Yes, there is a character whose doom is inevitable from his first appearance, but his elimination does move the story into a higher gear. The way Michael's life is on the edge of imploding reminded me of Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems and we wonder how close to the cliff Gilroy is going to take us.
Gilroy provides handsome production values to the story, including some exemplary camerawork that, at times, tells the story by itself. In addition to the Best Picture nomination and Clooney's Lead Actor nomination, Tom Wilkenson's severely damaged Arthur Edens earned him a Supporting Actor nomination and Tilda Winton's morally bankrupt Karen Crowder won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack also impresses as Michael's boss. The movie is hard to follow here and there, but the final payoff is well worth it.