GEORGE CLOONEY SPECIAL WEEK : THE TENSION IS MOUNTING - "MICHAEL CLAYTON"

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Mr. Clooney grace this humble blog. Down to me completely of course, but there you go better late than never. So now, not only do we have a full movie of him but also a multiple Oscar® nominated little number fit to take your breath away and I don’t just mean Mr. Clooney’s looks =) Nominated for seven Oscar®s in total including Best Film and Best Director, Michael Clayton sets a high standard. Then lives up to it.
George Clooney is, as you may have already guessed, Michael Clayton. What he does for a living is not that obvious from the outside, but in reality he is a “fixer”. He works for a massive law firm in New York and he is the middle man between clients and the firm, and more importantly tricky, sticky situations and everyone else. He doesn’t exactly have a happy time of it but his gambling debts keep him firmly attached to the job. One day, the firm receives a piece of rather extraordinary news. One of their representatives out in a small rural area who is overseeing the lawsuit between a major industrial firm (their client) and the people of the area who claim the firm is causing pollution and grave damage to the area has had a slight “break” from reality. Clayton is sent to hush him up and preferable bundle him into a mental institution. On arrival however Clayton realizes quickly that there is less madness and more guilt involved than he first thought. His colleague seems to know a lot more than he was supposed to and this is not proving good for him. And with the young, ambitious executive of the firm (Tilda Swindon) prepared to do ANYTHING to keep her firm afloat, the more Clayton “looks into” this, the greater the danger around him becomes…
This film is, I believe, a classic example of the fact that how you tell a story is just as important as the story you tell. I mean of course unless you have a good story you will not keep your audience no matter what you do. But the story doesn’t need to be new or very original. Look at this one, your common or garden corporate cover-up story, fully equipped with charismatic protagonist after the truth. However, since the actors are brilliant and the director is bent on keeping us up to our eyes in suspense until the very last minute we end up gripping the arms of our seats and biting our nails, despite the fact we have actually seen it all before… My only slight criticism is that although it is fascinating and exciting and all that, it takes the long, scenic route to get to the point. Which is fine, because that is the appeal of the film. It is fun, for example to work through the clues slowly, trying to figure out where the adventure will lead you, I am all for that. But I did feel it did take a little too long to actually get to the actual point if you see what I mean. The “setting “of the story took a little too long and it wasn’t always %100 clear. I mean, it comes clearer later but still, it could be umm… Even clearer.
I don’t know, it’s one of those things you have to see for yourself to really “get”. And I strongly recommend you see this one for yourself. Typical, a quality Friday night entertainment!