Michael Clayton, a high-priced law firm's fixer, leaves a late night poker game, gets a call to drive to Westchester, and watches his car blow up as he's taking an impromptu dawn walk through a field. Michael Clayton, Clooney, is a fixer, a man who uses his knowledge of the legal system, specifically those of loop holes in various laws, and persuasion to help rich clients of the high end law firm in New York where he works. While Michael is trying to fix things someone decides to kill him. . Feb 23, 2008 By Subhash K Jha There is an arresting interlude in the first 40 minutes of this engaging, though not gripping, drama on legalese which isn't to say it's a courtroom drama where that interesting and charismatic actor George Clooney drives his fantasy-ridden son to school. He owes a loan shark to cover his brother's debts Michael's own gambling habits have left him virtually broke.
Here is one more that adds to the list. And it is not just with the age-old established genres - action, romance, comedy, sports, horror etc - that there are time-tested rules and universally recognized templates. We can only guess what's going on his sharp mind. He owes a loan shark to cover his brother's debts Michael's own gambling habits have left him virtually broke. While setting out to make a genre movie, one needs to make sure that the rules are adhered to, by checking off all the requisite items that need to occur at regular intervals, giving the audience the expected twists and turns, before trying it all the end neatly in a bow-tie. But he also wants to be a good and attentive father. As the traumatized, torn and finally ripped-apart lawyer Arthur Edens chooses to battle the demons within, rather than the morally ambiguous litigants in the courtroom, Tom Wilkinson emerges with a performance that concretises the professional dilemmas of any successful corporate man of today.
Arthur largely works with Karen Crowder, U-North's general counsel, she a woman who highly controls what others see of her. He knows that he cannot do this job forever, especially as he is getting burnt out and as the firm is going through a merger, he not having an official job title describing what he does to the other firm. This is the one theme that emerges from this slightly stirring drama of roomy resonance that steers miraculously clear of pronouncing a final verdict on the legal system. The film then cuts back to several days earlier to explain what set up these strange and deadly series of events. Now the romantic comedy - start with 2 characters that are at either ends of the poles, setup the reasons for why they could never be together, cause the situations for them to come together to have a closer look at each other and have a change of hearts, tug them apart from one final time, before letting them back in each others arms for the final flourish. Cast: , , , , , , , Director: Genres: Production Co: Mirage Enterprises, Section Eight Ltd.
The film is constructed in a non-linear narrative fashion, featuring events out of sequence. Michael Clayton, a high-priced law firm's fixer, leaves a late night poker game, gets a call to drive to Westchester, and watches his car blow up as he's taking an impromptu dawn walk through a field. The storytelling is as effective as a bus ride through the seamy side of a tourist town. Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career when a guilt-ridden attorney Tom Wilkinson has a breakdown during a huge class-action lawsuit. Beyond needing to fix the problem that Arthur has created, Michael has to figure out if his rantings were that of a madman, or if there was some other end to which Arthur is working. It does not stick to a single story line from start to finish.
The issue is that Arthur, off his meds and in a manic state, starts to strip naked while in a deposition meeting in Milwaukee. The dialogue needs special mention for its precision and exacting nature, that is as brutal, as cynical and as truthful as it is cunning, manipulative and evasive - usually expected of people in the legal profession in the real world. However much the cases were interesting and the villains, ranging from Tobacco industry, Insurance industry, Gun Lobby etc were colorful, the path became too predictable and beaten so much so that the whole genre begged to be redefined. It shows the maker in great control of his material refusing to show his hand at once, instead engaging the viewer to keep in step with the proceedings on the screen. Genre movies are typified by the strict adherence to the established standards. Burned out and deep in debt, he is bound tightly to the firm. It does that by finding its emotional core in the stark realism of the case, which ironically, plays more dramatically than scripted drama.
Everyone in the film, including Clayton's son, is troubled and anxious. Clooney as Clayton remains outwardly calm, almost imperturbable. The mere process of the trial itself lends itself quite easily to fall into the 3 act structure without even trying. His law firm is negotiating a high-stakes merger, and his firm's six year defense of a conglomerate's pesticide use is at risk when one of the firm's top litigators goes off his meds and puts the case in jeopardy. They apply even to the new age genres like animations and blockbusters yes, they have become their own genres. Tilda Swinson as a lawyer grappling corruption in the boardroom and her cold sweat in the bathroom maps out her inner world with a face that renders itself defiantly well to the arching skyscrapers of New York. Sport movies - the garden variety - start the movie with an athlete who has past his prime, trying to hang on the last vestiges of his credibility; supply him the motivation, either via a new character that comes into his life usually, a brash protege or because of a career choice that causes him to start at the bottom of the ladder; then build him up in a final act towards a redemption that is both personal and universally appealing Ex: The Natural, Tin Cup, Bull Durham, Hoosiers and many such.
Likening his work to that of a janitor, he cleans up the messes of the firm's clients as well as that of the firm itself. Continuing in the same vein, legal thrillers courtroom dramas have been the staple genre of Hollywood ever since its inception. It is quite difficult and daring to side-step the accepted norms and chart out new territories, and request the audience to take a leap of faith and proceed along the new path. Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career when a guilt-ridden attorney Tom Wilkinson has a breakdown during a huge class-action lawsuit. The perverse pleasure that lies in intermingling genres and pulling it off successfully proves a satisfying experience for the makers and gratifying experiece for the audience. Is it an action piece? The latest issue he faces at work concerns Arthur Edens, the senior and best litigator in the firm.
At the end of the movie, it becomes difficult to categorize it under one particular genre. His law firm is neg. Burned out and deep in debt, he is bound tightly to the firm. It's a cleverly crafted moral fable, though the craft never shows in the outer weave of the narration. He owes a loan shark to cover his brother's debts Michael's own gambling habits have left him virtually broke. Meanwhile his son summarizes the plot of a dark fantasy novel.