Kathmandu:

It is interesting to note that after, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood, each of which garnered eight Oscar nominations, along came Michael Clayton and Atonement with seven nominations. We’ve talked about Atonement and about No Country For Old Men. Michael Clayton is a very different kettle of lawyers.

Directed by Tony Gilroy in his debut as a helmer, he wrote the movie for George Clooney, his previous scripts include the three choppily riveting Bourne screenplays but in Clayton he goes for cut-to-the-chase story-telling and he is brilliant at it.

Clooney is his cool, sometimes broken down, sometimes roguish always cinematically commanding. And matching him are Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton all three of whom have been Oscar nominated. Clooney for Best Actor. Clooney is a lawyer who becomes a fixer in a large New York law firm, he makes damaging stories to the firm ‘go away’. He’d like to move on to run a restaurant but he is tied to senior partner Marty Bach.

As Glenn Kenny says, “Clayton’s life begins imploding for real as one of his colleague’s does, big time. Tom Wilkinson’s character, the firm’s lead lawyer defending an Evil Corporation in a toxic-chemical lawsuit, has a multiple-freakout-inducing ‘moment of clarity,’ which leads to his a) stripping naked in the middle of a deposition, b) declaring his love for a young plaintiff in the case, and c) gathering evidence that will definitively nail the Evil Corporation he’s supposed to be defending. Clooney’s dispatched to rein this guy in. Meanwhile, Crowder (Tilda Swinton), the insecure, fear-driven chief counsel for the Evil Corporation, concocts her own desperate measures for dealing with the mess.”

It is while trying to get Arthur under control Clayton suddenly realises that Arthur isn’t crazy at all and it is he Clayton who has hit rock bottom morally.

Over to Kit Bowen who talks about acting and directing saying that Michael Clayton shines, “All the performances are spot-on, starting with Clooney as the title protagonist. His Clayton is a study in conflicted behaviour — a gambleholic, burnt-out on having to cleaning up his firm’s messes, divorced and trying to be a good dad to his precocious son. The best part? He isn’t necessarily ‘fixed’ at the end of the movie. Then we have the two spectrums of good vs evil: Wilkinson turns in another amazing performance as the film’s conscience. The veteran actor gets all the best Oscar-worthy speeches, especially the one he gives off-camera explaining the moment he found ‘clarity’. And on the opposite end, there’s Tilda Swinton playing Karen Crowder, one of U-North’s mucky mucks. Her insecurities and rash decisions fuel Michael Clayton’s action. In the end, however, no one comes off smelling sweet.

Tony Gilroy certainly knows a thing or two about writing smart, character-driven pieces. With Michael Clayton, he has finally decided to take the helm for the first time, backed by the full support of executive producer George Clooney — and he couldn’t have picked a better choice for his debut film. Michael Clayton isn’t one of those legal thrillers in which you are looking for a twist to keep you guessing. What Gilroy concentrates on instead is the power of his actors’ performances.

For example, the director cuts between a nervous Karen getting ready in her hotel room before giving a presentation and her actual poised speech, or intimately shows Clayton having a poignant conversation with his son in his car. Everything fits seamlessly within the context of the action. It’s an absolute tour-de-force.