![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
XXIII: Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton (2007)
This is the film for which the divine Tilda Swinton won an Oscar, and I think this is the reason I went to see it.
Firstly the film is in Erin Brocavich territory - and Soderbergh who directed that produced here (as he did in I'm Not There.. Actually I did briefly wonder if the main lawyer was Albert Finney - but no, it's Tom Wilkinson.
Clayton (Clooney) is a fixer: he comes in to make arrests and charges disappear, reduce sentences and so forth. He's also a gambling addict, and he has picked up the tab for his brother's failed restaurant. Whilst sorting out such a fix, his car is blown up, and we spend the rest of the film finding out why.
Four days earlier a case was about to self-destruct. U.North have produced a chemical that seems to have given people cancer, and Arthur Evans (Wilkinson), the chief lawyer for their defence, has had a nervous breakdown. He's come off his meds, and Clayton has to be babysat. However Karen Crowser (Swinton) - U.North's fixer - is prepared to stop at nothing to win the case.
Swinton's character is called upon to be Evil - but hey, she was Queen Isabella in Edward II and the Ice Queen or whatever in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe so she's used to doing unsympathetic. Or, if not evil, then sailing close to the edge of ethics. And she's shown being nervous about it, and having second thoughts, even though she's got to the point of using underhand tactics like these very quickly. I couldn't help but be reminded of Glenn Close in Damages. But the character has no background, no weight, no sense of motivation beyond doing her job. Perhaps that's enough. Odd to see her with dark hair rather than red. We do see her rehearse her lies, her calculated cheating on the case, and her conscience needed more exploration.
But then Clooney's character is hardly more richly drawn - we're told he's a gambling addict (cue one scene to establish this) and told he's a fixer (cue opening scene to show this, although he doesn't fix anyone). And I'm not entirely clear why he gets out his car to look at horses - besides to ensure he's not in it when it blows up. I think there are some pictures of horses in his kid's book, but it doesn't seem sufficiently explored.
This is Tony Gilroy's directorial debut, and it's all too slow - which is odd since he wrote the three Bourne movies. It squeezes in at under two hours, but feels longer.
Totals: 23 [Cinema: 9; DVD: 13; TV: 1]
This is the film for which the divine Tilda Swinton won an Oscar, and I think this is the reason I went to see it.
Firstly the film is in Erin Brocavich territory - and Soderbergh who directed that produced here (as he did in I'm Not There.. Actually I did briefly wonder if the main lawyer was Albert Finney - but no, it's Tom Wilkinson.
Clayton (Clooney) is a fixer: he comes in to make arrests and charges disappear, reduce sentences and so forth. He's also a gambling addict, and he has picked up the tab for his brother's failed restaurant. Whilst sorting out such a fix, his car is blown up, and we spend the rest of the film finding out why.
Four days earlier a case was about to self-destruct. U.North have produced a chemical that seems to have given people cancer, and Arthur Evans (Wilkinson), the chief lawyer for their defence, has had a nervous breakdown. He's come off his meds, and Clayton has to be babysat. However Karen Crowser (Swinton) - U.North's fixer - is prepared to stop at nothing to win the case.
Swinton's character is called upon to be Evil - but hey, she was Queen Isabella in Edward II and the Ice Queen or whatever in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe so she's used to doing unsympathetic. Or, if not evil, then sailing close to the edge of ethics. And she's shown being nervous about it, and having second thoughts, even though she's got to the point of using underhand tactics like these very quickly. I couldn't help but be reminded of Glenn Close in Damages. But the character has no background, no weight, no sense of motivation beyond doing her job. Perhaps that's enough. Odd to see her with dark hair rather than red. We do see her rehearse her lies, her calculated cheating on the case, and her conscience needed more exploration.
But then Clooney's character is hardly more richly drawn - we're told he's a gambling addict (cue one scene to establish this) and told he's a fixer (cue opening scene to show this, although he doesn't fix anyone). And I'm not entirely clear why he gets out his car to look at horses - besides to ensure he's not in it when it blows up. I think there are some pictures of horses in his kid's book, but it doesn't seem sufficiently explored.
This is Tony Gilroy's directorial debut, and it's all too slow - which is odd since he wrote the three Bourne movies. It squeezes in at under two hours, but feels longer.
Totals: 23 [Cinema: 9; DVD: 13; TV: 1]
Tags: