"Michael Clayton" (2007) - Movie Review

We have seen the story of “Michael Clayton” in couple of other movies like “Erin Brockovich” or even though I have not seen “The Firm” and “A Civil Action”, the plot lines and couple of scenes I have witnessed over surfing the channels deals with that too. We see here something more than that, wherein any one else would not have thought about the key players of the underplaying characters. Many concentrate on the trial lawyers and the case builders but here we take a spin on a silent whistle blower Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) who just had enough of the case he is disputing the deal for the company U-North. Under medication for depression, he stops taking it. But his actions of running across the table stripping off during the important settlement seem a cut loose person finding various ways for redemption. I guess self-humiliation is the punishment he imposes on the sins he has been committing for U-North through his law firm.

As the scenes of Michael Clayton (George Clooney) and Arthur, Clayton and Marty (Sydney Pollack) fall by, I wondered how classy the movie have been so far. We can see Clayton riding down the hill in the four long and tiring days. He is heading a deadline to meet up his financial debts with organized crime due to a failed bar of his then a man he looked up as a mentor going mad and puts the firm as a whole in jeopardy. All of those needs clean up by him. That’s his job though as he and Arthur calls it, “Janitors”. They are the men behind the curtains to make sure when it pulled off; there is a beautiful picture of harmony, an illusion though.

The screenplay by director Tony Gilroy is tight, inventive and has the mood. Its midnight in the law firm office and as the light is on; no one is at their desks. And with Wilkinson’s character Arthur explains his release out of the dirty hole to Clayton in background voice, the mood is set. It is dull not because of the winter but the bleak truth faded by walking lies. Added to that we see tired Clooney and if some one like that is shown tired, you can picture the rest. We have always seen Clooney in bright lights of freshness. He can be mean and ruthless and make it look elegant and appreciable. He in his other movies comes as a man of command, wit and cool. We see him in command but he is losing it too as Arthur. He is witless because any man in his situation will be sucked out of those. He makes humour but it is dark to be insulting and cut throat to make his point. He is cool to the others but as the audience we know his stomach is full of butterflies, worried and tensed. He reassures himself talking to his kid in the car and is simply his demonstration of acting on how much of the end in the arc he can go. Clooney pulls the opposite of him with the charisma he always has and brings it along with the traits of his trade mark mannerisms.

Why do giant companies easily negate the consequences of their actions and go in business with flood gates open? I guess relying on big law firms and the cleaning people like Arthur and Clayton. They are there who are for worst case scenarios. They fit the work and deal the deals. These are the soul sellers and executioners taking missions from the kings high above believing that an indirect action does not contribute to Karma. But sometimes the movies wake up some doubts in these characters. Michael Clayton is the fixer as he says and wipes out the mess and dirt doing it for several years. With that we can imagine the years of work Arthur has spent and how he is better than the best in his line of work. How come out of the blues there is a cry for emotional catharsis from them? It is good to say that almost any human has the idea of right and wrong. It pops up in us when the cross roads come. We die a little when we go against the known right decisions. May be that is one of the reasons, Arthur’s wrong turns has taken him closer and closer to the bitter deaths only that he cannot sleep in peace. For Clayton it gets attached from Arthur. Truth is contagious. When these two characters are at the end of the horizon for absolution, we see Karen (Tilda Swinton) planting hers into the league only that extending it far more beyond than these guys.

Gilroy’s movie makes us to forgive these two and mainly release Arthur from his pains and provide him the chance of making up his life a sum of good will. And Wilkinson’s edge of the life portrayal of Arthur makes us to sit with the guy and hear something out of him, or as Clayton try to make some sense out of it.

The credits rolled up with a simple close up scene of Clooney in the back of taxi and no one moved from their seats. They show his facial movements and we know what he is thinking. I was not seated to express a good gesture of not going out when others were sitting through it, but I wanted to read this person, looking afresh for once in the whole movie. It forms as a thoughtful and perfect way to finish the film. It is no wonder why the utmost dissection of truth links so close with the law firms and the big deal makers. It is the place where it gets thawed upon with ease and some times makes it look that there are bunch of neatly attired persons with money on their mouth than a heart to bite the bullet.