Michael Clayton

Screenwriter Tony Gilroy makes his directorial debut with this dramatic thriller about burned-out corporate lawyer Michael Clayton (George Clooney), who's built a career on cleaning up his clients' messes. When a guilt-ridden colleague (Tom Wilkinson) threatens the settlement of a multimillion-dollar case, Clayton faces his biggest challenge ever. Tilda Swinton (with her first Oscar win), Sydney Pollack and Michael O'Keefe round out the impressive cast.

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» Recommended for 1 person

» Reviewed by 13 people

Good acting, actually very good acting, probably one of George Clooney's best films. I did enjoy the movie, but I didn't love it. It was a good film, but I felt the pacing was a little slow at times. It's the type of movie you have to be in the mood for and maybe I just wasn't.
- TReding

Quality cinematography, a solid cast, and great acting more than compensate for a thoroughly predictable plot. All in all, a well-made picture.
- LX-5

Sometimes I wish there was a sixth star. This is an absolute marvel of a movie, what every John Grisham film adaptation after The Firm tried (and failed) to be. This is NOT a movie about twists -- in the first 15 minutes, you've already been told who the bad guy is, what they did, and have been shown the climax of the film. Instead, the film earns its revelations: the loss of identity, family, trust, and virtue -- and how one man reaches a critical crossroads where he learns to begin to find them again. And even though the sequence of events is not particularly surprising, it's the MANNER in which they unfold that is exhilarating. It's very easy to end a film with a satisfying shooting of the bad guy (heck, I loved 'Shooter'), but it's even harder to end a film where the 'guns' are truths, and the 'bullets' are words. The climax of this film is a CONVERSATION -- yet it's as thrilling and heartbreaking as anything you've seen this year. I could go on for a thousand words, but your time is valuable and should be spent seeing great films, like this one. My highest recommendation.
- Topaz420 in CA

This movie has a straightforward story with interesting layers. In case you haven't heard, Michael Clayton works as a "fixer" for a law firm where his friend, Arthur, has gone insane at a very inconvenient time. Arthur holds the keys to bring down the entire pristine corporate world they all inhabit. Numerous people on all sides want this to stop and Clayton, with his questionable morals and desperation, must find a way out of it hopefully with his friend still alive afterwards. We've seen what, five? Maybe ten movies like this? What elevates it are masterful direction, cinematography, acting, and editing. Many of these roles are difficult to handle; one has to project the role of strength and vulnerability at the same time. On the whole it works, especially for Clooney and Swinton. Wilkinson and Pollack are fantastic and so are the rest of the cast. Wilkinson, if not for Bardem, would have taken home an Oscar. The lighting, sets, and costuming all do the best job of showing the differing worlds: corporate, rural, urban, ghetto. And all the deleted scenes were right to have been deleted. This is an example of taking a well-worn but interesting idea and executing it with fantastic skill. It is one of the best bowls of tomato soup you will ever have.
- Dan the Karateka

I’m sure you know the quote “Out of the mouths of babes”, well I have to say Michael Clayton’s son wrote this review for me. When he was talking to Arthur on the phone describing the book Realm & Conquest ‘All of these people are having the same dream … you know like a vision quest. They don’t know why they have to go to this one place, but all of them are still drawn to it with the feeling they just have to go. They don’t know they are having the same dream, they just think that they are going crazy or something, and don’t want to admit it.’ While watching this movie and up until the end I felt as if it all was just a dream and the characters were playing the parts they were supposed to play, but yet it was just so real.
- JWnPooh

It's refreshing to see a movie like this because they aren't really made anymore. Michael Clayton is an intelligent, absorbing drama full of interesting characters and ideas. It shares more in common with the paranoid thrillers of the 70's than the Grisham inspired films of the 90's. When so many films in this vein today would rather rely on cliches to tell their story, nothing in this movie feels rehashed. Typically these stories are plot driven where the machinations of the story are much more in the foreground than the characters. This film, like those of the 70's, is more character driven. The loose summary of the plot is that there's this agricultural chemical company who's involved in a billion dollar class action suit over its use of toxic chemicals. Clayton is a "fixer" within the firm defending them. It sounds like it would be a complicated bureaucratic courtroom drama but since we are following characters more than plot they become like vehicles to navigate us through the story. It goes without saying that the acting is great. Clooney and Swinton both give great performances, Sydney Pollack should be cast in every movie, and Tom Wilkinson gives yet another revelatory performance as a manic depressive lawyer who accidentally uncovers his conscience. Clooney's Clayton, like his brother in the film, is an addict. Instead of drugs he's into gambling, gambling in underground poker matches or on business ventures and the film cleverly uses this as a kind of hidden theme throughout the movie where its characters are constantly raising, folding, bluffing and where sometimes pure luck is the only thing that can save you. You don't normally think about outstanding photography in films of this nature, but the cinematography here is striking, from a stunning image of horses, a hill and a gray day to a buzzing office late at night. Shooting in widescreen doesn't seem like an arbitrary choice for this movie, it perfectly suits the epic quality of this intimate story.
- Paul Logan

ireviewnetflix.com rating: * This was absolutely horrible. I couldn't even make it through the first hour without putting an end to the suffering. I don't know if it was the horrible story or the horrible acting of the awfully overrated George Clooney, but I hated this movie. How was this nominated for an Academy Award? Well, I guess this goes to prove that the Academy is out of touch with mainstream America.
- ireviewnetflix.com

"Michael Clayton" is a movie with an odd name for a legal thriller in the sense that it does not give any hint of the content of the film. The sequence of events is presented in an strange way but it seems to work well. The viewer is given a dose of events about to occur and the subsequent scenes explain how much of the ending develops. George Clooney's performance is excellent and seems to be getting better--or perhaps he is getting better scripts. The acting is in tune with the events and the tone of the movie. This is not a movie loaded with car chases and gun fights; it is more about the legal and emotional drama surrounding the characters. Sydney Pollack and Tilda Swinton also added considerably to the success of the film. Their performances were also understated and the character development comes about gradually as we learn about them through their reactions to events. A good movie well worth watching.
- AtTheBeach

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) works for one of the biggest law firms in the world. In the planet. He fixes problems that occur for the firm's partners and clients. Big problems, like a hit and run. Little problems, like going off psych drugs. But all types of problems. A large firm will have to deal with a myriad of problems caused by excess and fear and ordinary human fallibility in a convoluted world that is spinning out of control. The movie starts out with Clayton going on another case of fixing-the-world for his clients and then quickly dissolves into a series of disjointed vignettes revolving around Clayton's professional and personal life. This movie is also making a statement about how big business consists of blood-sucking vampires that are concerned about the bottom-line and profits and could care less about the effect that anything has on people, how the planet or on humanity. It makes a statement that attorney's are just janitors, sweeping up one mess after another. Is the analogy correct? Each viewer has to decide for himself. But when is enough actually enough. Once again, that is a personal choice. But this movie falls short. I stayed watching because I wanted to know what happened, but I really didn't have anything invested in who I wanted to win. I guess I wanted the bad guys to lose, but really, who were the bad guys? To be more accurate, there weren't any good guys. The characters are all antiheroes. The pieces of the puzzle did eventually come together, but by then, I really didn't care. Nothing in this movie was strong, no fear, no dislike, no outrage. It was just mediocre. Even the characters were mediocre. But then maybe, that's all there is in the world most of the time: mediocrity. I liked the ending but even a good ending didn't make up for the rest for the pieces that were lacking.(7/1/08)
- VIP Club

Let me start by saying that George Clooney did an excellent job in this movie. In fact, he WAS the movie. But it starts out with some guy talking like he’s kind of crazy, but you don’t see him, you just hear him. Then all kinds of seemingly disjointed things happen and then they pull the ol’ flashback thing to four days before. So it’s 20 minutes in, and I’m already a little confused as to what’s going on in the present, but now I have to remember all that, but then find out what happened four days before. A bit much. And there are lots and lots of characters. How do we keep track of Michael Clayton’s brother(s), his family, his former wife (I think), his co-workers, and a girl and her family in Wisconsin? I’m telling you, it gets very convoluted and complex. But by the end, I pretty much had it all figured out. It did ultimately make sense, the plot and the subplots, but did we really need soooo many people? And why the flashback technique? Just telling the story from the beginning would have been better. I'd like to give it 2 1/2 stars.
- Southern Belle 1

I liked MICHAEL CLAYTON and would recommend it to others, but I didn't like it as much as some of the other Oscar contenders for 2007. My lukewarm feeling towards this movie isn't because of the acting or even how the story was "told." I liked the look of the film and the editing was amazing. My problems are with the story itself. The idea of a legal thriller that never steps into the courtroom is a good one, and George Clooney has grown into a movie star in the classic mold. For me, however, this is a legal thriller almost completely devoid of thrills. The plot also has a big hole in it towards the end (also the beginning, but that's just the filmmakers playing with time a little) that I won't ruin for you. Just remember you read this when you watch it. Faulty movie logic tends to ruin the fictive dream for me. This didn't ruin the movie for me completely, which is a compliment. Worth watching.
- Firewater

Michael Clayton is brilliant film on all fronts. It’s well acted by the entire ensemble, with a standout performance by Tom Wilkinson. It shuns many of the conventions of a typical law thriller (ala John Grisom). It has almost been misrepresented by it’s own hype. It certainly has a lot of smooth talking, quick-witted lawyers, but it’s not a slick fast paced film. Much to its benefit, it’s a slow film, with elegant cinematography, allowing the gravity of the situation to set in for the characters and allow the actors the breathing room to truly develop the changes that take place. Tony Gillroy pens an amazing script that is perfectly executed, you couldn’t ask for a much better directorial debut.
- Dlukenelson

Nominated for 7 Oscars including one for Best Picture and one for George Clooney. A good plot and some turns along with some good performances. Tom Wilkinson as the off-his-medication lawyer who wakes up to the realization of his job and makes a mess of things. Clooney plays the guy who cleans up messes like these, but there are others who have other ideas. See Clooney at his best. "I am Shiva, the god of death."
- Cleve1212