While reading many of the reviews written over the past thirteen years, I was struck by how many people have dismissed this film because they couldn't follow Tony Gilroy's expert construction of character and plot. I felt the need to write about the plot and casting of what I feel is another of George Clooney's expertly constructed and expertly performed films.
Michael Clayton's son Henry (Austin Williams) is playing a computer game whose landscape - in which everyone has hidden enemies and loyalties are impossible, is a perfect metaphor for the world of Clayton's law firm, currently earning $9M in fees defending a chemical firm in a case that the head of the firm acknowledges "reeked from the very start". Clayton himself is a 'janitor' for the firm, expert at cleaning up the messes his colleagues can't handle, but after 17 years he's not a partner; his firm keeps him at arm's length so that they can disavow all knowledge of his interventions. He's the son of a policeman, and a brother of a detective, from both of whom he derived a sense of responsibility that tugs at his conscience every time he applies the grease that lubricates a tricky situation for the firm. Now, he has to help the senior firm lawyer, Arthur
Edens (Tom Wilkinson), who's in charge of defending the chemical firm, when Edens succumbs to his own fit of conscience. Trying to call Clayton in the midst of a guilt-ridden moment, Edens ends up speaking to Clayton's son, learns of the computer game, Realm and Conquest, and of its amoral landscape, and realises what he must do about his years-long defense of a guilty corporation. The corporation's chief legal officer, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) a fast-tracked executive who owes her allegiance to her mentor, the corporation's CEO, knows that her own career hangs upon a quick resolution to the problem caused by Edens's fit of conscience. She calls a a Mr Verne (Robert Prescott), another 'janitor' recommended by her mentor, to monitor and solve the problem. The story unfolds over a span of four days, and at the end Clayton's conscience, and his willingness to act on it, has brought a temporary resolution to the court case, as well as to aspects of his own family's life. He's still alone, though, cruising in the back seat of a Manhattan cab on $50 worth of time, wondering about the future. It's a tight, grim plot, entirely plausible in the modern world of corporate ruthlessness and self-serving legal manipulation,
Gilroy's superb script contains so many clever nuances of behaviour and motivation that I don't think they can be grasped fully in a single viewing. The framework of Clayton's weakness - gambling at cards and business because he wants some 'walking-away money - which might well have led to his divorce from Henry's mother - is grounded in his yearning to be a courtroom lawyer again, on the frontline of justice. But his firm's principal,Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack) tells him "a lot of guys are good at that. At what you do, you're great!" That means he'll have to stay where he is, helping get clients out of jams, whether or not they're guilty. He'll never be a partner, and his debts won't be paid. If he tries to get a $75,000 loan from the firm to pay off the loansharks he's indebted to, he'll be suspected of trying to blackmail the firm. There's no apparent way out for Michael Clayton. The consequences of unleashing a security team against Arthur Edens and Michael Clayton become ever guilt-inducing for Karen Crowder, and her tightrope walk between the threats presented by Edens's actions and the security of her position with the corporation's CEO and Board is increasingly tense. The addiction-fuelled decline of Clayton's younger brother Tim (David Landsbury) is at the centre of a family crisis that Clayton's actions help to mitigate by film's end, and the reminder of his brother's weaknesses makes Clayton address his son Henry with words that clarify his own yearning, and his own values. . ."on his strongest day, your Uncle Timmy was never as strong as you . . . you don't need to worry. . . You won't be one of those guys. . " It's a beautiful and moving moment in the film, capturing an intensity of hope that every father has for his young son.
The casting of this film is masterful. Sean Cullen as Gene Clayton is the perfect elder brother, a detective following in their father's footsteps who has remained outside Michael's Manhattan world. Dennis O'Hare is spectacularly good in a cameo as an executive whose weasel behaviour focusses Clayton's self-loathing. Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson are both superb, and it's unjust that Wilkinson received no awards for his performance. The other cast members who create Clayton's family bring to life a world that he's left behind, but which is more stable and sustaining than the world of his law firm. And Jennifer Ehle and Skip Sudduth apply their superlative craft playing lawyers in deleted scenes which I feel should be re-inserted into the film. Finally, I salute the nuanced performance of George Clooney. One brilliant moment - the look on Michael Clayton's face as Dennis O'Hare's businessman wonders "what if (his Jaguar sedan) had been stolen" so that he wouldn't be charged for a hit-and-run. The contempt and loathing, both for 0'Hare's character and for himself as an accomplice, flicker across Clooney's eyes and mouth in a long instant as he watches his client Then his eyes and voice go dead as he tells O'Hare "There's no velvet chain, no champagne room. . . " - no dodging the consequences, in other words. It's one of many high points in this breathtaking performance, by an actor at the peak of his craft.
What must one do in an increasingly amoral world? That's a key question for artists to explore. The answer, as presented in Michael Clayton, is clear and unambiguous. The skill with which it's presented is the mark of a brilliant motion picture.
Review of Michael Clayton
