brandon 1Michael Clayton (2007)
March 31st 2008 07:21
I call this smoldering expression, 'desperation with a smirk'
Michael Clayton (2007) is about a man by the same name, played by George Clooney. Clayton is a law firm’s ‘fixer upper’. When Arther Edens, a lawyer who has been building a case for one of the law firm’s largest clients, U-North, stops taking his meds and starts building a case for the opposing side, Clayton is called in to handle the situation. However, Clayton slowly realizes that there might be truth to Eden’s apparent insanity.
Michael Clayton is a movie about the man of the title, not the case he is working on. The movie doesn’t even go into the case in that much detail. The movie is about Clayton’s morality, and so it concentrates on his humanity. Clayton has problems of his own. He owes money for a failed restaurant and has a gambling problem.
What Clooney portrays is not the slick ‘fixer uppers’ glamorized in movies such as Thank You For Smoking (2005). Clayton is not an overconfident charmer who always has a smile on his face. Contrastingly, he is fed up with his unspecific job.
Clooney plays Clayton so that he has a subtle underlying sadness in his expression most of the time. He is an average guy with an interesting job, but he is sick of it.
The cinematography is fantastic emphasizing the bleak nature of the story. Character’s expressions are often explored with close ups.
Thinking about it, I’m not sure what held me throughout the film, because not a great deal actually seems to happen. However, from the opening scene and monologue I was hooked. I’m going to blame that on great cinematography, great acting from Clooney, Tom Wilkinson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Batman Begins- is it just me, or did he really suck in that?) and Tilda Swinton (Broken Flowers, Thumbsucker), and great directing from Tony Gilroy.
4 out of 5
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