Michael Clayton

Went to watch Michael Clayton with Derrick and Gs at Cine on thursday night.

Michael Clayton is an intelligent film, perhaps a little too intelligent and detailed in the first half of the movie. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a "fixer" who cleans up legal messes for VIPs and corporations on behalf of a prestigious law firm. A lawyer, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), representing a huge agro-chemical corporation being hit by a class action suit, has a breakdown compounded by guilt over his defense of a company that is probably in the wrong. Thus, Clayton is assigned to fix the problem and the company's CEO (Tilda Swinton) will stop at nothing to keep Edens from sinking the case.

The pace of the movie is tediously slow in the beginning and it requires exceptional attention from audiences. The movie builds up its characters slowly but steadily along with the story which documents the disastrous consequences if the massive lawsuit fails. The strong performances save the show with Tom Wilkinson as the mentally unstable but resolute lawyer, Tilda Swinton as the competent but vicious company CEO, as well as George Clooney as the steadfast, weary but insightful "fixer".

The 2nd half of the movie picks up much pace with the mounting tension from the subsequent investigation of a murder and a key character being targeted for extermination. It questions moral values in the current materialistic society as well as the horrors one can do in the quest for power and domination. It is a suspenseful and meaningful film, provided if you have the attention span to last through the boring parts.