Michael Clayton DVD Review

"Michael Clayton" reviews

DVD

Michael Clayton

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2008-02-15 15:50:15

Provider

MRIB

DVD Review

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a 'fixer' for a large corporate company in New York. If something needs cleaned up that could prove to be an embarrassment to the company and its clients then Clayton is your man.

Despite being in debt, recovering from a gambling habit and burnt out from a family side venture Clayton is loyal to his firm's boss Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack). If Marty needs something done, no matter how unscrupulous, Clayton will back him up.

He only starts to become conflicted when the company's top litigator and a close friend of Clayton suddenly develops a conscience and threatens to blow the whistle on a multi-million dollar settlement case.

It's not hard to predict what will happen next. Clayton is your classic anti-hero, the one that only starts doing the right thing when he has no where else to turn. Whilst the story may hardly be a new one, it's told with searing style by first time director (and the writer of the Jason Bourne films), Tony Gilroy.

Get over the deliberately disorientating opening ten minutes and you're treated to a wonderful throwback of 70s cinema, with atmosphere and slow burning tension replacing fast edits and constant shoot outs.

Add that to an array of pitch perfect performances (Clooney, Tilda Swinton and Wilkinson all deliver career bests) then you have yourself a modern classic.

And the deleted scenes on the DVD only add to why this film works. While most directors try to make their protagonist sympathetic for audiences - Gilroy cut out a lot of Clayton's backstory because it made him too rounded.

Copyright © MRIB 2008.