George Clooney does something unusual in Michael Clayton. He looks uncomfortable.
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10/05/07
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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
Instead of the typical John Grisham-style connect-the-dots legal thriller, we get a film that's idiosyncratic, with a time-shifting structure, a surfeit of subplots and characters.
10/05/07
Top CriticDark in color, mood and outraged worldview, Michael Clayton is a film that speaks to the way we live now.
10/05/07
Michael Clayton is the adult antidote to a torrent of monotonous gobbledygook devoid of poignant messaging.
10/05/07
Unlikely and eerily realistic at the same time.
10/04/07
A taut, exciting and thoughtful legal thriller that is so smartly conceived and executed that to merely call it a "legal thriller" almost sounds demeaning.
10/04/07
[Gilroy] shows that it's interesting to see how much suspense can be generated when one decides to do the right thing, simply because the forces at large will do everything they can to prevent it.
10/04/07
Despite an exceptional performance by Clooney, Michael Clayton is like watching a drawn-out third act that left the really compelling stuff back in the first two.
10/04/07
gripping and complicated
10/04/07
Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton feels so fresh, so smart, so different from the standard-issue legal thriller that it isn't until nearly an hour in that you notice how conventional a movie it actually is.
10/04/07
Though the film ultimately bows to the smiley-face demands of the New Millennium box office, it manages to be a spellbinding action-drama, skillfully built upon a scary corporate conspiracy, chock-full of enjoyable downbeat performances.
10/04/07
With the George Clooney-starring Michael Clayton, [Tony Gilroy] has not only saved his best script for himself, he's also turned out a smart and suspenseful legal thriller that comes completely alive on-screen.
10/04/07
Top CriticWithout [Clooney], and without some fine playing from Wilkinson and from Sydney Pollack as the firm's lead partner, Michael Clayton would be glossy claptrap.
10/04/07
A poignant and powerful thriller about corporate malfeasance that reveals what it is like to face life-shattering moments.
10/04/07
The filmmaker, best known as the scribe of the Bourne trilogy, wears both director and writer hats here, and the results are electrifying.
10/04/07
Top CriticThis 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
It's such a skilled job of directing and writing that the pages and pages of technical talk and lists of names and numbers all sound like actual dialogue.
10/04/07
It’s one of the most satisfying films of the year, recalling a classy breed of studio film more common in the 1970s and the early ’80s.
10/04/07
Top CriticIt's invigorating and impressive on a formal level, but ultimately wearying.
10/04/07
Top CriticBrilliantly precise in its deconstruction of dirty work and dirtier secrets, and a surprisingly subtle story of people who often can't tell if they're talking to a friend or an enemy.
10/04/07
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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