Movie Monday: Michael Clayton
For some reason, this past weekend HBO HD became free for us. We probably had it all day Saturday but we only picked it up Saturday evening. I started watching the MST3000 movie but soon realized that Michael Clayton was on.
Fast forward to the present. This weekend was HD all the way. I saw The Golden Compass, Harry P otter and the Order of the Phoenix, Eastern Promises (note: see this with A History of Violence since they are matching bookends), Charlie Wilson’s War, and perhaps a few others I slept through.
I admire George Clooney political/societal beliefs. I really enjoyed his tour-de-force role in O, Brother Where Art Thou? better than his typical Cary Grant type roles. In Michael Clayton it’s like Grant in a seedier role, say None But The Lonely Heart. Having said that, his acting didn’t get in the way of the story in Michael Clayton, a real plus for any actor.
Now a look at Michael Clayton (Spoilers ahead.) There’s really nothing new about Michael Clayton’s plot. Oh, it does twist a few things: Clayton is a mediocre lawyer in a big firm (it’s very unusual for that type to last; they wind up practicing law like Paul Newman in The Verdict) and the masterminding villain is a woman. Besides that it really a tale of a jaded man who has to make a moral decision. And, I think there are better movies dealing with this theme. In fact, moral dilemmas are universal so the competition to make it into a good movie is immense.
However, Michael Clayton moves along quickly and has some good pluses. The acting is very good, down into minor roles. There is real suspense and villainy: the killing of the lawyer, Arthur Edens, the planting of the bomb. The child actor, Austin Williams, who plays Clayton’s son is charming. (Child actors can be a kiss of death for a movie.) And refreshingly, the boy’s stepfather is shown defusing a confrontation between the boy and his mom.
Just to stop and summarize the plot: A top lawyer at a big firm (Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens) has been negotiating one big case for six years. He’s on meds (boy, is he on meds; be sure to look at that medicine cabinet scene) but has stopped taking them and one day during a deposition for the case, strips naked in the room and runs out into the parking lot. Clayton, his friend and colleague, is called in. Edens tells him that their client has been polluting and killing people and he has the documents to prove this. The rest of the movie concerning the firm’s general counsel (Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder) going deeper and deeper in treachery first in order to silence Edens and finally to silence Clayton. Shit happens but there is a a deus ex machina ending and “good” bests “evil.” Or does it?
Using the plot I just summarized, I found Michael Clayton rather pedestrian. Good performances aside, it was perhaps second only to The Verdict on my “disbelief at the ending in a legal drama” scale.
It was scary in how Edens was killed; suspenseful as Clayton walks towards his car while the killers are planting a bomb in it; realistic to hear a lawyer tell the hit-and-run client that he really can’t “make it all go away”; and refreshing to see the small role of the step-father played without meanness. But that was it. The movie doesn’t stay with you except as a very well-crafted film. I can just picture the meeting with the screenwriter and the director.
Director: We have to get Clayton out of his car before the bomb goes off. Any ideas?
Screenwriter: Mumble, mumble. (Gears in brain racing.) I’ve got it. We have Clayton leaving the client in Westchester and racing through country lanes. Suddenly, he looks up a hill and sees three horses standing together at dusk. He’s dumbfounded. He leaves his car and walks up to them. The horses stay still. We watch Clayton studying this scene and then BOOM!, the car blows, the horses gallop off. The lit majors will love the metaphor.
Unfortunately, I don’t get the metaphor. And finally, I don’t get why Crowder would talk to Clayton in that empty hall scene and incriminate herself by bribing him. Even I know about wearing a wire. Jesus H. Christ. She was general counsel for the firm. Had she been living under a rock?
So in summary: You won’t go wrong with Michael Clayton as long as you’re not expecting a “white knight” movie. Perhaps in the end, Clayton bested his treacherous law firm and dented the reputation of a multi-billion, multi-national corporation but he didn’t save the world. He didn’t win one for the little guy. You have no clue that he is concerned, as Edens was, with the plight of the polluted farms and farmers.
And now, having taken you this far, let’s back up to final scene between Crowder and Clayton. Just one line when Clayton is saying that Crowder didn’t have to go to the extremes she did. He says something like: You didn’t need to do this. Don’t you know my role in the firm? I’m the janitor.
You know, the janitor. The guy who cleans up the messes, like spilled paint in the art room, like psychotic lawyers off their meds.........
Then, also in that final scene, Clayton says something like: You didn’t have to try and kill me, I already got the money for my debts. (Clayton had a failed restaurant and gambling debts.) So he’s saying that he had already been paid off, they had already bought his silence.
Now, take another look at the movie. Take another look at Michael Clayton. It becomes an even darker film. It becomes one you will remember.
(Final note: Swinton won the Supporting Actress Oscar for her role. OK, maybe it was Oscar worthy (if you think the Oscar is a worthy award) but that scene where she is practicing her speech is right out of the earlier Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett where she used this technique and in which movie Blanchett deserved an Oscar.)
For some reason, this past weekend HBO HD became free for us. We probably had it all day Saturday but we only picked it up Saturday evening. I started watching the MST3000 movie but soon realized that Michael Clayton was on.
Fast forward to the present. This weekend was HD all the way. I saw The Golden Compass, Harry P otter and the Order of the Phoenix, Eastern Promises (note: see this with A History of Violence since they are matching bookends), Charlie Wilson’s War, and perhaps a few others I slept through.
I admire George Clooney political/societal beliefs. I really enjoyed his tour-de-force role in O, Brother Where Art Thou? better than his typical Cary Grant type roles. In Michael Clayton it’s like Grant in a seedier role, say None But The Lonely Heart. Having said that, his acting didn’t get in the way of the story in Michael Clayton, a real plus for any actor.
Now a look at Michael Clayton (Spoilers ahead.) There’s really nothing new about Michael Clayton’s plot. Oh, it does twist a few things: Clayton is a mediocre lawyer in a big firm (it’s very unusual for that type to last; they wind up practicing law like Paul Newman in The Verdict) and the masterminding villain is a woman. Besides that it really a tale of a jaded man who has to make a moral decision. And, I think there are better movies dealing with this theme. In fact, moral dilemmas are universal so the competition to make it into a good movie is immense.
However, Michael Clayton moves along quickly and has some good pluses. The acting is very good, down into minor roles. There is real suspense and villainy: the killing of the lawyer, Arthur Edens, the planting of the bomb. The child actor, Austin Williams, who plays Clayton’s son is charming. (Child actors can be a kiss of death for a movie.) And refreshingly, the boy’s stepfather is shown defusing a confrontation between the boy and his mom.
Just to stop and summarize the plot: A top lawyer at a big firm (Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens) has been negotiating one big case for six years. He’s on meds (boy, is he on meds; be sure to look at that medicine cabinet scene) but has stopped taking them and one day during a deposition for the case, strips naked in the room and runs out into the parking lot. Clayton, his friend and colleague, is called in. Edens tells him that their client has been polluting and killing people and he has the documents to prove this. The rest of the movie concerning the firm’s general counsel (Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder) going deeper and deeper in treachery first in order to silence Edens and finally to silence Clayton. Shit happens but there is a a deus ex machina ending and “good” bests “evil.” Or does it?
Using the plot I just summarized, I found Michael Clayton rather pedestrian. Good performances aside, it was perhaps second only to The Verdict on my “disbelief at the ending in a legal drama” scale.
It was scary in how Edens was killed; suspenseful as Clayton walks towards his car while the killers are planting a bomb in it; realistic to hear a lawyer tell the hit-and-run client that he really can’t “make it all go away”; and refreshing to see the small role of the step-father played without meanness. But that was it. The movie doesn’t stay with you except as a very well-crafted film. I can just picture the meeting with the screenwriter and the director.
Director: We have to get Clayton out of his car before the bomb goes off. Any ideas?
Screenwriter: Mumble, mumble. (Gears in brain racing.) I’ve got it. We have Clayton leaving the client in Westchester and racing through country lanes. Suddenly, he looks up a hill and sees three horses standing together at dusk. He’s dumbfounded. He leaves his car and walks up to them. The horses stay still. We watch Clayton studying this scene and then BOOM!, the car blows, the horses gallop off. The lit majors will love the metaphor.
Unfortunately, I don’t get the metaphor. And finally, I don’t get why Crowder would talk to Clayton in that empty hall scene and incriminate herself by bribing him. Even I know about wearing a wire. Jesus H. Christ. She was general counsel for the firm. Had she been living under a rock?
So in summary: You won’t go wrong with Michael Clayton as long as you’re not expecting a “white knight” movie. Perhaps in the end, Clayton bested his treacherous law firm and dented the reputation of a multi-billion, multi-national corporation but he didn’t save the world. He didn’t win one for the little guy. You have no clue that he is concerned, as Edens was, with the plight of the polluted farms and farmers.
And now, having taken you this far, let’s back up to final scene between Crowder and Clayton. Just one line when Clayton is saying that Crowder didn’t have to go to the extremes she did. He says something like: You didn’t need to do this. Don’t you know my role in the firm? I’m the janitor.
You know, the janitor. The guy who cleans up the messes, like spilled paint in the art room, like psychotic lawyers off their meds.........
Then, also in that final scene, Clayton says something like: You didn’t have to try and kill me, I already got the money for my debts. (Clayton had a failed restaurant and gambling debts.) So he’s saying that he had already been paid off, they had already bought his silence.
Now, take another look at the movie. Take another look at Michael Clayton. It becomes an even darker film. It becomes one you will remember.
(Final note: Swinton won the Supporting Actress Oscar for her role. OK, maybe it was Oscar worthy (if you think the Oscar is a worthy award) but that scene where she is practicing her speech is right out of the earlier Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett where she used this technique and in which movie Blanchett deserved an Oscar.)
No comments:
Post a Comment