Movie Brief: Michael Clayton
by Jim ~ February 29th, 2008. Tags: Movies, reviews.
Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney, cleans up messes for his law firm. He is a brilliant, engaging fellow with a knack for getting things done and making stubborn legal problems go away, or at least minimizing them the best he can.
But now he faces the mess of his life, one that even he may not be able to fix.
One of the firm’s attorneys, assigned to a multi-billion dollar case in defense of a giant agricultural chemical company, has a bipolar nervous breakdown that threatens to completely blow apart the case. It’s Michael’s job to get him back on his medicine and to do all he can to insure that the case doesn’t completely implode.
A battle ensues as Michael is vexed by the top level attorney for the chemical company, played by Tilda Swinton. She has different ideas about Michael’s ability to handle the problem and decides to complicate things by taking matters into her own hands.
While this is an engaging, compelling, and suspenseful thriller its not quite up to the level of the academy award nomination which it received. I rate this movie a 7 out of 10.
