Michael Clayton

Review by Zachary K. Parker

            In Tony Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton,” the title character performs the duties of a “fixer” or “janitor” for the law firm, Kenner, Boch, and Ledeen. He’s constantly called in to clean up an extensive array of situations, ranging from upper class hit-and-run drivers to the newly embarrassing behavior of his firm’s senior partner, Arthur Edens (a frazzled and harried Tom Wilkinson).

            Edens has been heading up a case defending the corporation, U/North, against a lawsuit involving the harmful effects of their agricultural products. The film opens with a montage of sundry shots showing a corporate office with a sinister voiceover by Edens, describing his epiphany amidst the chaos in the middle of a street.

            In trying to cover up the hidden facts of the U/North case, he realizes that he works for a law firm that makes it possible “…for other, larger, more powerful organisms to destroy the miracle of humanity.”

Disguised as a “Summons to Conquest,” Edens plans to publish a certain document, hopefully stopping U/North. U/North, now headed up by the aggressive yet naive Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), demands that the law firm handle Edens or else they will sue for legal malpractice, essentially extinguishing the firm.

            Thus the powers that be call the morally wooly “miracle worker,” Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney, to handle Edens. Clooney comfortably fills the shoes of a man wise in the machinations of the world, but with less zeal than his Bob Barnes of “Syriana,” making Clayton a juxtaposition of moral intelligence and exhaustion.

            In fact, it’s easy to imagine Clayton’s drowsy figure to collapse at any point in the film, but as he uncovers more niceties about the problems at U/North and the hostility towards Eden, he’s propelled on a reluctant search for truth. 

            Truth figures prominently at the center of a lot of “lawyer” movies, but what makes “Michael Clayton” stand out is in Gilroy’s realistic depiction of lawyers and his handling of a morality tale without unlikely plot twists or schmaltz. 

       

Unlike Gilroy’s earlier lawyer film (“The Devil’s Advocate”), “Michael Clayton” avoids stereotypes at all costs, making even the smallest supporting characters believable. In this way, Tilda Swinton’s convincing and even sympathetic performance makes her Academy Award win wholly justified.  

Gilroy’s record includes the exhilarating and morally conscious “Bourne” trilogy, and he makes his directorial debut with “Michael Clayton.” It’s impressive to see a filmmaker who can effortlessly craft such a tightly written script about the conflict between profit and integrity.

It’s extraordinary to see how he then takes that screenplay and makes it into an atmospheric experience with a camera that makes the dark shadows in offices, hotels, and living rooms almost an integral part of each character so that they’re exploring or hiding in an extension of themselves.

Each character grapples with the chaos of the world as it relates to man’s apathy or self-interest, and Edens knows “there’s a reason” for all the film’s happenings, and Michael must decide whether or not to continue in Edens’ footsteps. In the end, Clayton undergoes a Christ-like death and resurrection, which allows him to fix an end to his situation’s problems.

There are many reasons to check out “Michael Clayton,” and it’s such a quiet film that it might slip by, but once you see it, it quietly slips into your mind many times after viewing, and in the final shot leaves you an open seat in the taxi besides the character to heed the “summons to conquest” of humanity’s moral imbalance.