"Michael Clayton" is one of the most fascinating movies I've ever watched. The stripped-down thriller is filled with engrossing scenes not because of what is happening but instead why they are happening. It features many different layers that can be analyzed separately but ultimately belong together.
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a fixer who self-advertises as a janitor. He is a lawyer but is said to specialize in wills and trusts. Clayton previously wished to get out of the business and open a restaurant, but the financial investment fell through due to his gambling and other unforeseen circumstances. Someone wishes him dead. The explanation may seem simple, but it's really much scarier than you could imagine.
Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) is a trial lawyer within the same firm. Edens defends U-North, a company that made a bad insecticide that caused many animals on a farm to die and become deformed. Edens goes off of his medication and falls in love with the young plaintiff. Clayton is alerted that Edens has become a problem after he strips down naked in a deposition and runs through the parking lot wearing only his socks.
Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) from U-North steps in to manage the situation with knowledge from a leadership standpoint but none from what she feels she needs to be. There's nothing sexy or seductive in the character. She spends much of one scene rehearsing the answers to an interview in her underwear, but this isn't used to show her bearing much of herself or even that she has something to hide; instead, we see that Karen Crowder is, by her nature, plain and normal.
On that line, we should come back to Anna, Edens' love interest. He gives a monologue about two Lithuanian prostitutes performing oral sex on him, but he intentionally ruins it to make it last. When he sees Anna, he believes a light goes off in his mind that suddenly makes everything crystal clear in his life. Anna is what completes him. We meet her in a few scenes, and by a standpoint, there isn't anything physically special about her. She isn't overweight, nor is she supermodel skinny. Her hair is blond, but it isn't a standout shade. I could go on, but the point is that by our eyes, Anna is a background texture, one that we couldn't notice if we tried. Karen doesn't look the same, but she exhibits the same quality of plainness. The difference is that someone sees Anna for more than she is and for more than she thinks she is. Karen Crowder wants so badly to be the villain that her tragic flaw is that she doesn't know how to be.
You can probably catch on and see what I'm talking about when I mention layers. This rich layer cake of a movie keeps you with it throughout as we explore these people and their decisions. This is a movie that could have been created years and years ago and been a classic today. I can only hope that it will have that fate years from now.
Rated R for Language Including Some Sexual Dialogue.
Buy it here.
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