With a solemn monologue opening the first scene of George Clooney’s newest film “Michael Clayton,” viewers are introduced to the world of big time lawyers in the backdrop of present day New York City. Sound familiar? Try “been there, done that” as flashbacks of “Runaway Jury” and “The Juror” come to mind.
George Clooney plays the title character, the unofficial yet highly paid “fixer-upper” for the Kenner, Bach and Ledeen law firm. In Clayton’s dirty dealings, he is the one and only top dog to cover up the firm’s daily scandals and criminal activity. In an early scene, Clayton describes his position – he is not a miracle worker, but a janitor. Well, start cleaning up, Clooney, because the dirt is piling up.
As one would expect, the movie is filled with your usual group of high society attorneys and John Grisham type of drama. However, even with a hopeful cast with stars like Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton, there is no guarantee for success. Even if there was, viewers will want their money back.
Tilda Swinton, as Karen Crowder, gives Clooney just the dirt to clean. A major scandal occurs between two merging firms: Clayton’s with Crowder’s. Within this seemingly quiet event, a murder hits close to home for Clayton.
But at this point, the nature of this unexpected death is far from clear and far from being well-executed. Even worse, viewers are forced to simply accept this new occurrence and move on to the following scenes. These scenes, in turn, leave viewers with a tangled mess of facts and “shockers” that give no help to any kind of revelation that was so desperately hoped for.
Although “Michael Clayton” is a great example of Hollywood’s progressive death into cheap movies one-hit wonder directors, the film does end with a fairly entertaining finish. Now, even though half of my enjoyment in the ending came from the movie, well, ending, Clayton is thankfully filled with some witty comedy and snappy comebacks to tie it all together. Viewers understand corruption, power, greed and law during the simple and creative credit format at the end. As I can give the movie some credit for that, it in no way makes up for the first two hours which were painfully wasted and solely used to struggle with playing “catch-up”.
While trying to portray the darker sides of this world of power and law, sheer boredom can only be derived from the endless stream of scenes and speeches. With only spontaneous and rare occasions of true excitement, this film’s lack of action, lack of romance and lack of clarity puts viewers in a state of confusion – most asking why they didn’t pick this season’s dreaded chick flick instead.
@Contact Info:Cait Smith can be reached at [email protected].
