MovieScope
'Michael Clayton' - Clooney Clueless
Review By Robert Snyder
In one of his periodic breaks from the lucrative, empty-headed "Ocean's 11- plus" franchise, actor/Hollywood powerbroker George Clooney is taking another stab at Oscar attention with the corporate thriller, "Michael Clayton." Written and first-time directed by Tony Gilroy of the "Bourne" scripts, "Clayton" is a convoluted combination of Sidney Lumet's far-superior "The Verdict" and Steven Soderbergh's far-superior "Erin Brockovich." The focus is on down-andalmost out lawyer Michael Clayton (Clooney), who does legal mop up, or "janitorial," work for a big Manhattan law firm. He's a semi-visible character, who essentially has no future and barely has a present. A partnership is out of the question and courtroom work will never happen. As a "fixer," Clayton cleans up client or company messes, hopefully, before the press pokes around. Largely an extended flashback, the narrative has multiple storylines, which makes it mazelike and often incomprehensible, even to Clayton. Finally, it settles on a scandal involving the firm's top litigator, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), melting down in a Peter Finch-"Network"-type, public freakout. It is sparked by the revelation that his client, a giant agrochemical company in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit, is polluting the Midwest with its cancer-causing crop nutrients.
Soon, murder is on the agenda, as the corrupt company's in-house counsel and resident Lady Macbeth, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), has her two henchmen silence Edens and anyone else privy to a certain smoking-gun memo. This includes Clayton. Now faced with his mortality and moral conscience, the fixer has to do some real life-and-death fixing.
The problem with "Michael Clayton" is its central focus on a character who is out of focus. Unlike "The Verdict" and every other legal drama, it is a story about an attorney without one courtroom scene. While the story comes together in the final moments, most audience members may find their minds wandering. (I was thinking about saving money on my car insurance.)
Maybe, Clooney should see what Danny Ocean is up to.
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