Michael Clayton - A Movie Review

I finally had the chance to see Michael Clayton this weekend. I was glad to get to see it before the Oscars. Certainly it will make a little noise at this year's ceremony, but I wanted to see for myself if it was really deserving of the 7 nominations it received.

Here's what I can say:

The Story - Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney is a lawyer, but not the trial kind. He's a fixer. He gets sent in by his firm to clean up messes and make bad things disappear. The movie picks up in the middle of a giant case. UNorth, a major corporation, is being represented by Clayton's firm because a class action suit has been filed against them. A bunch of farmers are claiming that UNorth's chemicals are causing cancer.
UNorth has been represented for year's by Arthur, a top notch attorney. After many years trying to settle the claim Arthur has a psychotic break and could cost the firm and it's client millions of dollars. Clayton is sent in to fix it.

The Acting - Top notch. That's all I can say. Clooney is great. I mean when is he not. Sydney Pollack is at the top of his game as is Tilda Swinton. The best performance however goes to Tom Wilkinson who plays Arthur.

The cast is so well put together that the movie can't help but to be a must-see. But, the story moves at a glacial pace at times with some scenes being so drawn out that I remember looking at the ceiling several times until I heard someone finally speak again. The director and screenwriter decided to use one of my least favorite story telling devices. They began the movie near the end and then after the first scene went back "4 days earlier" to show you what lead up to the scene you saw at the beginning. I feel like this is an over-used ploy it often times it make a movie or television show drag. That as definitely the case here.

The movie presents itself as a puzzle that you must figure out as it progresses. One scene leads into another with little or no connection. I enjoy putting movie together, but once I had all the pieces for this film it became predictable and easy to see where things were heading.

Plot (The Story): 7
Script (The Dialog): 7
Directing: 7
FX / Sound: 6
Casting: 10
Acting: 10
Pacing: 4
Conclusion: 6
Overall Entertainment: 13

TOTAL: 70
MOVIE GRADE: C-


For the record here are the grade ranges:
100 - 97 = A+
96 - 93 = A
92 - 90 = A-
89 - 87 = B+
86 - 83 = B
82 - 80 = B-
You Get The Point
70's = Cs
60's = D's
59 and below is F