nan | 楠木

The Oscars have passed and it’s that time to do the catching up again with the nominees. I’ve seen No Country For Old Men, Juno, Atonement, which leaves Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood.

Michael Clayton is written and directed by Tony Gilroy (in his first directorial role, it seems, based on IMDb data – this is the screenwriter of the Bourne trilogy), and boasts a stellar producer / executive producer lineup – Steven Soderbergh, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack… And of course George Clooney.

With that type of lineup, it’s no surprise that the film boasts production excellence. It’s a slick and polished film, and pleasant to watch. The film adopts a nonlinear narrative (a major incident is shown first, then a flashback to tell the story from the beginning), which is somewhat showy but at least effective, and the extra mental work required to piece together the story does make the audience more engaged.

Going back to the basics, the film stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swindon, and the plot is in essence a rather simple story of a lawyer finding his conscience and deciding to expose a serious crime. Clooney is the Clayton of the film’s title, a “laundry guy” at a big law firm who has a talent for cleaning up messy situations. When he’s sent to take care of situation involving a partner’s (Tom Wilkinson) maniac depression breakdown, he stumbles into a conspiracy plot of sorts, with the client (who’s chief counsel is Tilda Swindon) desperate to cover up a crime. Of course there’s also a personal angle to this: Clayton is in a financial crisis, which sets up a nice and predictable conflict later on: money or conscience?

For a legal thriller, the film does not break a lot of new ground. The plot is similar to what you find in many John Grisham novels (and their film adaptations). The performance is indeed high quality, with Tom Wilkinson especially scene stealing, but it’s baffling how Tilda Swindon could win Best Supporting Actress with her role – she has so little screen time and her acting is so by the books that she looks more robot than human.

In the end, this is a mostly by the books thriller, with a scent of the same gritty coldness of the Bourne trilogy (which works well for this film). It’s a classy production, but it’s not especially groundbreaking.

7/10