Michael Clayton
User Reviews for Michael Clayton
10/15/2007 Posted by globot
I'm not sure what other people have been watching when it comes to Michael Clayton, there must be another movie out there of the same name! Yes it was my turn to pick and I went for the old fashioned thriller movie this past Saturday afternoon. First there is no way you could fill even 1 hour let alone 2 hours with this movie. My girlfriend and I found it to be both predictable, as the subplots were obvious and weak as well as plain old slow! George was good in parts but certainly nowhere near what some critics have described as an "Oscar nod" performance. Sydney Pollack was excellent, more of him, a more "minder" type personality for George with some better writing and this movie could have been great. Unfortunately it fell short, way short...try renting the recently released...RATATOUILLE, you will at least have chuckle instead of feeling like you've been overcharged at a very fancy French Restaurant (seeing as you ran straight home for a bowl of cereal).
Pros: None
Cons: all 2 hours of it
10/06/2007 Posted by ephraimh
The plot: Clooney is a "janitor" for a huge law firm. His job is to clean up important clients' messes by finding them lawyers who will save their miserable litle hides. He does a few other chores. He's not the firm's "muscle"; he's the connects people; he doesn't "disconnect" them. There's a very little mess at the outset to give us an example of a minor one he has to clean up. I wondered if this was the degree of the messes to come. Then the main mess is created when someone very important trips and hits the floor. The job of cleaning it up is, of course, Clooney's. Clooney is top notch and Arthur Wilkinson delivers a great performance as the guy who trips. Tilda Swinton, as the corporate attorney and the law firm's public face, is very good. There is some very witty dialog and the serious stuff is not the least bit sloppy as it was in The Hunting Party. The one problem I had was figuring out the dynamics of Clooney's family life. It was mostly, but not exclusively, the sub plot. You might have little trouble with it. It's a very intelligent movie, but not riveting as Eastern Promises was.
Pros: Good acting by all the lead performers
Cons: We've seen this plot before

