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  Synopsis:
When an elite litigator has a
mental epiphany in the middle of a client
meeting, his firm calls on Clayton to clean up.
The aforementioned, Arthur Edens (Tom
Wilkinson), suddenly realizes (once off his
medication) that the world he is living in is
sinful and that he has spent the bulk of his
life fighting on the wrong side of justice.
Siding with the people his firm wants to see
fall, Arthur sets a chain of events in motion
that forces people on both sides into a twisted
world of corporate America vs. the common
man...and we all know who usually wins there,
right?
The Freak's
Rating: C- : I
am actually in the minority of people who still
enjoy George Clooney. I hear many people
say that they are sick of him, but I really do
think it is jealousy. Come on, the guy
played Batman in one of the worst movies of all
time and somehow recovered! You have to
give him props for that alone.
Michael Clayton (Clooney) is
very similar to the Wolf character from
Pulp Fiction,
though on a more bureaucratic level. He is
a cleanup man, called in to assist millionaire
clients of the highest levels in society.
For example, when a company's CEO drives home
from a party a little bit drunk and hits someone
crossing in a crosswalk, they don't call the
police, they call Michael Clayton. Clayton
is the best there is, bottom line.
Michael
Clayton runs about 15 minutes too long.
There is a haunting death scene in the film that
is a little too morbid for the overall tone as
well. Tilda Swinton won the Academy Award
for her role as Karen Crowder, a corporate
novice puppet master thrust into making life or
death decisions. Her scenes are especially
well done and she does do a great job in the
role, selling the nervousness perfectly.
However, the overall mood of the film was never
correctly set. The idea of someone in
corporate America realizing the error and coming
to the aid of the little guy has been done over
and over, but it is still an intriguing idea.
When the movie finally forces you to realize
that it is going to try another take on it, I
was hoping for an uplifting moment. When
the movie finally handed me a climactic moment,
it just wasn't satisfying enough.
Michael Clayton did not
deserve to be nominated for Best Picture.
It doesn't even make my top 30 of the year for
2006. If you want a good little guy vs
corporate America flick, seek out the first of
John Grisham's adaptations, The Firm.
Though not the best of the genre, it is a more
effective recent entry.
Lori's Rating: C : I felt this movie was
a little slow moving. The theme of the movie
reminded me of The Firm and other such movies
just not as well put together.
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