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to both be slimy and sympathetic, although one is more sympathetic and one is
more slimy. The real star of the show here, however, is writer/director Tony Gilroy. A writer on all three Bourne movies
and the hostage-negotiation drama Proof of Life, he seems fascinated by men who are very good at jobs that are done out of
desperation rather than enjoyment. This is his first movie as a director, and he wholeheartedly succeeds in that department by letting
his screenplay and the actors do most of the work. He stages his conversations simply, letting the dialogue notch up the tension
rather than the camera work, and often lingers on his cast's faces for a few beats at the end of each scene.
Gilroy is also going for some complex symbolism, in one scene involving a few horses when Clayton finds himself out of the city in a
rural area, and another with a subplot involving a book that Clayton's son is reading. These passages don't altogether succeed; the
horses are unnecessary and turn out to simply be a random plot convenience, while his son's book is meant to illuminate one
character's state of mind but ends up being rather unnecessary. Actually, since the kid disappears from the movie completely two-
thirds of the way through, and Clayton already has a divorce, a sick father, an estranged brother, and oh yeah, a gambling problem to
worry about, the kid was probably unnecessary.
Minor points aside, it's a well-done movie. I didn't understand everything that was happening all the time thanks to my complete
ignorance of the law world, but Gilroy makes it easy for us to at least understand the motivations at work, and even better, he made me
care about what happened. At the end of the movie, when everything has come to a resolution, the camera once again lingers on
Michael Clayton's face in a continuous shot as the end credits begin to roll. He's not a desperate man anymore, but there's no visible
relief, no smile. He just sits there, thinking about what he's going to do now.
Movie Grade: B+
Michael Clayton
Review By: Stephen Snart
StephenSnart@TheCinemaSource.com
Issues of the personal and the professional overlap, intersect, fold in on themselves and get all around muddled – as does the plot – in Michael Clayton, a legal thriller written and directed by Tony Gilroy of the Bourne franchise. George Clooney stars in the titular role as the employee of a powerful law firm whose broad job description is a “fixer.” It’s a performance of immense understatement, both in terms of emotion and charisma. Even more so than in his underwritten albeit Oscar-winning role in Syriana, this is Clooney at his most world-weary and downbeat.
Michael Clayton’s strongest attribute is the attention it pays to character’s lives outside of the workplace. Unlike many other corporate conspiracy tales, the diminishing home lives and personal time of the central characters is made into ...
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