Michael Clayton wants it both ways. It requires smarts to understand what's going on, and a lack of smarts to care and not be able to predict the outcome.
5 Comments
10/22/07
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Michael Clayton (2007)
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Reviews Counted:189
Fresh:170
Rotten:19
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: Michael Clayton is one of the most sharply scripted films of 2007, with an engrossing premise and faultless acting. Director Tony Gilroy succeeds not only in capturing the audience's attention, but holding it until the credits roll.
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Law/Lawyers, Thriller, Mental Illness, Divorce, Theatrical Release
Theatrical Release:Oct 12, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $48,976,323
Synopsis: Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is what is known in the legal world as a "fixer," or in the character's own pejorative version, a "janitor" who cleans up legal messes for VIPs and corporations on... [More]
Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
Director: Tony Gilroy
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Reviews for Michael Clayton
The strength of the film is Tom Wilkinson's performance as a bipolar lawyer who stops taking his medication and has an epiphany of sorts.
10/20/07
Malo je gledatelja koji od prve ne%u0107e shvatiti tko su u filmu pozitivci a tko negativci.
04/10/08
This doesn't begin to deserve the Oscar nominations it’s likely to get, but I had a good time with it nonetheless.
10/11/07
Money hungry men in nice suits stopped being cool in 1982, and Michael Clayton doesn't do enough to bring it back again.
09/05/07
Dude, there’s a bomb in your car.
10/10/07
So bogged down in plot that it has little in the way of suspense.
09/29/07
Michael Clayton literally knocks its brains out trying to be clever, but it ends up being the same kind of smart-alecky filmmaking most of Mr. Clooney’s movies are famous for.
10/03/07
Top CriticIt is just about perfect as an exercise in the genre. I've seen it twice, and the second time, knowing everything that would happen, I found it just as fascinating because of how well it was all shown happening.
10/05/07
Top CriticSome might see the dark cinematography, the protagonist pursued by demons, and the slow, wordy, incoherent story-telling as tense. I looked at my watch a lot.
10/08/07
There’s a great George Clooney film in here somewhere, but you have to look mighty hard to find it.
09/28/07
Not a bundle of laughs but a brilliant and compelling drama. This is Clooney at his very best.
09/28/07
Michael Clayton is the adult antidote to a torrent of monotonous gobbledygook devoid of poignant messaging.
10/05/07
Michael Clayton is an assured, intelligent thriller, the kind that never depends on clunky exposition and differentiates its heroes and villains only by the choices they make during the film.
10/05/07
Michael Clayton definitely has its heart in the '70s.
05/01/08
Clooney's glamorous intelligence is deepened by his constant hints that slickness, like corporate integrity, is just an act.
02/22/08
a thriller of the most sophisticated type, playing the macrocosm of Clayton's professional problems against the microcosm of the soul he thought he had conveniently compartmentalized
01/30/08
This uncommonly intelligent thriller evokes the great films of the 1970s (All the President's Men, Klute, Three Days of the Condor) that managed to elicit gritty urban realism while maintaining a suave sense of style and moral complexity.
10/04/07
Expertly paced, tautly written and superbly cast, it may turn out to be the most auspicious debut of the year.
09/29/07
Hipster filmmakers keep looking backwards to the 1970s, hoping to disguise how ill-equipped they are to deal with contemporary social issues.
10/03/07
Latest News for Michael Clayton
May 11, 2009:
RT Interview: Tilda Swinton on Julia
One of the most diverse and celebrated talents of her generation, the directors on Tilda Swinton's CV represent a veritable who's who of independent cinema and include David... More...
May 27, 2008:
Sydney Pollack: A Retrospective
With two Oscar wins and plenty more nominations under his belt, Sydney Pollack was a filmmaker that Hollywood admired. He was also a proven actor's director whose fruitful... More...
May 26, 2008:
Sydney Pollack dies aged 73
Academy Award-winning director, producer and actor, Sydney Pollack, dies aged 73. More...
April 11, 2008:
Script Review: Tony Gilroy's Duplicity 
Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton -- the Clive Owen/Julia Roberts-led Duplicity -- is filming now, and Latino Review is offering a review of the script. More...
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