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The only way I could get my teenager to drive all the way to the valley with me to see Micheal Clayton - "What's it about?" "Corporate thriller." "You've got to be kidding me." - was to offer to pay her 100 bucks if she didn't like the film. Extravagant, I realize, but I did squander her movie trust years ago by convincing her to see Up At The Villa.
And if Micheal Clayton makes anything abundantly clear it's that people who suffer egregious lapses of judgment must pay and pay and pay....
Given that - who doesn't love a loop-hole? Well, no one in Micheal Clayton doesn't love a loop-hole. And that is exactly what everyone in the film is set hard on finding and jumping through.
The moral tone of this story is struck hard and clear right at the beginning. Clayton, a curious breed of lawyer, drives Upstate, NY in the middle of the night to handle one of his firms big-wig clients who has gotten himself in a bit of a jam. Seems just hours before Big Wig killed a man.
He didn't kill anyone INTENTIONALLY, of course. See, BW is driving home late at night, and this other kind of guy .. you know the type, sans Jag, on foot. I know. Ew. Right? .. is in BW's way so BW accidentally mows him down. Whoops. And then leaves the scene of the crime. Why?! Well, because it's all so INCONVENIENT.
What's inconvenient, exactly?
Honesty? Integrity? The high road? Ones pesky humanity? Yeah. That's right.
Clayton is a gambling man and he works for a crowd who gambles hard with the big questions.
And yes, the dead guy is completely off every one's radar.
I thought a lovely little defining gesture here is when BW's wife gets so fed up with all this yucky, early morning hullabaloo she throws her 5 A.M. cocktail against the wall.
What a mess.
Okay, so now we know what neighborhood we're in.
As it turns out, a neighborhood that's tricky as hell to get out of.
On his way back to the city Clayton's car gets BLOWN UP before he even hits the Parkway. And if that alone doesn't leave you with enough questions to sit through the rest of the film, just wait. The next 15 min. will give you plenty more.
The way I see it, there just isn't any THRILL in a thriller if you're not sitting there in the dark with a lot of questions banging around in your head. And as my teenage companion learned by the age of 4, every good movie answers all your questions.
Using this simple criteria Micheal Clayton delivers big in every way.
In my humble opinion, Tom Wilkinson was robbed of an Oscar for his BRILLIANT portrayal of Arthur Edens. Great name... and yeah. Go ahead and read into it. A brilliant manic depressive, corporate attorney who in the midst of riding lead pony on a multi billion dollar case that stinks - just ask the woefully compromised attorneys back at the lair. They all shruggingly agree on the smell coming off this case - suddenly makes a desperate, late in the game, lunge to save his soul.
For starters he throws away his meds, strips down to his socks and runs around naked in a freezing Midwest parking lot. And then he gets serious.
This is clearly a man who wants out of that neighborhood .. bad.
But Clayton, fix-it man in Arthur's firm, and one who's own destiny is suddenly and dangerously linked to this, his one time mentors. And Crowder, in-house counsel for their smelly client, played to duplicitous perfection byTilda Swinton. Both work hard to block his exit.
I couldn't stop thinking while watching Swinton sweat and plot and practice her victory laps in front of the mirror that Lady Macbeth has at last broken through the glass ceiling. Kudos. She more than earned her little gold man.
But the pivotal scene for me is when Clayton finally catches up with Arthur. The loony would be knight, who is stunning with at least 3 ties wrapped around his neck and a giant bundle of fresh baguettes inexplicably stashed under his arm. In the midst of trying to convince Arthur to do things the 'reasonable' way Clayton manages to spit out - I'm not the enemy! To which Arthur immediately demands
Then who are you?
Therein lies the biggest question of them all.
Yes. Plenty of bad judgement. And not nearly enough loop holes for everybody to get their life back. Choices will be made. None of them small.
I won't say how it ends but rest assured someone is going to pay and pay and pay.
And for once it isn't me!
I'm happy to report that at the end of Micheal Clayton, the aforementioned teenager admitted that even though she had planned at the outset not to like the film, REGARDLESS, so she could collect the easy 100 (I know. I saw that coming, too) decided she had to be honest and come clean.
She loved it!
What changed her mind? Some freshly internalized moral lesson? Maybe she worried I might turn into a scary lady lawyer and depose her on the ride home? Did she think .. okay, although no McAvoy, Clooney is still pretty cool to watch for 2 hours .. you know, for an old guy? Or did the story, the acting, the direction and the thrilling pay off simply blow her mind?
Who knows??
Micheal Clayton is that good.
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