"Michael Clayton"

Title: "Michael Clayton"
Director: Tony Gilroy
Producer: Sydney Pollack, Steve Samuels, Jennifer Fox, and Kerry Orent
Editing: John Gilroy
Composer: James Newton Howard
Starring:
- George Clooney as Michael Clayton
- Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens
- Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder
- Sydney Pollack as Marty Bach

Plot and Critical Review: The story opens as Michael Clayton, an attorney with a gambling problem, leaves a late night poker game. He works for the prestigious New York City law firm Kenner, Bach & Ledeen as a "fixer", someone who rectifies difficult situations, often through unconventional or expedient methods. Michael is summoned to meet with an anxious client who believes he has struck a pedestrian with his car and left the scene. After Michael leaves, he pulls off to the side of the road after some aimless driving. He climbs a hill to look at some horses, gazing at them, when his car suddenly explodes.

The story flashes back to four days earlier, when Michael received news that he owes $75,000 to organized crime figures represented by loan shark Gabe Zabel , due to a failed attempt to open a bar with his brother Timmy. Then he is called with the news that one of the firm's leading attorneys, Arthur Edens, suffered a bizarre mental breakdown in the middle of a crucial deposition in Milwaukee involving a class action lawsuit against the firm's largest client, United Northfield (or U-North), an agricultural products conglomerate. Dispatched to fix the situation, Michael gets Arthur out of jail and learns that his friend, who is a manic-depressive, has stopped taking his medication. Michael plans to take Arthur back to New York for medical care, but Arthur flees and reaches New York on his own.

Karen Crowder, U-North's general counsel, retrieves Arthur's briefcase and discovers that he obtained an internal U-North memorandum documenting the company's culpability for manufacturing a cancer-causing herbicide, the subject of the lawsuit. When Karen learns that Edens refuses to cooperate and cannot easily be committed to a mental health institution, she decides to hire two operatives to follow him, including tapping his phone and installing bugs in his apartment. This surveillance and the firm's review of documents in Arthur's office reveals that he is building a case against U-North, his own client. Karen tacitly instructs the two operatives to murder Arthur, which they set up to look like a suicide.

Michael is distraught at Arthur's death, but becomes suspicious when he accidentally learns that U-North was planning to settle the lawsuit and that Arthur had purchased a plane ticket to New York for one of the plaintiffs, Anna. Michael breaks into Edens's apartment and discovers a receipt for a large copy store order. At the store, he discovers that Arthur had ordered one thousand copies of the memo incriminating U-North. Michael takes a copy and leaves, but the two hit men are tailing him and, having obtained their own copy of the memo, inform Karen of the situation. Michael is about to show his boss, Marty Bach, what he has discovered, only to be confronted with an offer of a contract renewal and an $80,000 bonus that will cover his debt; Michael holds the check in one hand and the memo copy in the other.

As Michael plays poker that evening, returning to the film's proper opening, one of the hit men is seen rigging his car with a bomb. As Michael leaves the game he receives a phone call summoning him to a meeting with the client in Westchester County who committed a hit-and-run. He is followed by the hit men, who have trouble tracking him. Knowing that he is nearby, but not his exact location, the hit men detonate the bomb. An unharmed Michael runs back to his car and throws his personal effects into the fire. He later gets a ride back to New York with his estranged brother Timmy.

Later, at a U-North board meeting, Karen proposes approval of a new settlement agreement. Michael is waiting for her when she steps out of the conference room, and he tells her he has access to copies of the U-North memo and that he knows about her role in Arthur's murder and the attempt on his own life. Admitting that he himself "sold out" Arthur for personal gain, he demands to be paid off personally by her for his continued silence for $10 million. Karen reluctantly agrees. Michael then reveals the live cellphone in his pocket and walks away as police officers arrest Karen and U-North's chairman. His brother, the NYPD detective, had been covertly listening to their entire conversation. Michael leaves the building and gets into a taxi. He tells the driver, "Give me $50 worth. Just drive." After a few minutes his face reveals a hint of a smile and then the film cuts to credits on black.

"Michael Clayton" is a film that peels back the veil surrounding the world of New York law firms. Inspired by Tony Gilroy's impressions of said firms during the development and production of "The Devil's Advocate" (which he directed), "Clayton" presents with dazzling honesty a world that holds up the banner of justice but is willing to do whatever is necessary for it's own gain. In a world of letter-splitting and enormous financial gain we see that people will go to any length to achieve victory. Here we find Michael Clayton caught in the midst of personal and professional moral dilemmas that not only threaten his integrity as a lawyer but threaten his life as well.

"Clayton" was an exceptional film that was decorated in kind for its crisp and fluid production. While it made just under $100 million worldwide while it was in the theaters. It received over 30 nominations from the top cinematic review boards including 6 nominations from the Academy. Tilda Swinton received the Oscar for Best Actress, the only Oscar "Clayton" won and the only Oscar Swinton has yet received. The film also attained top rankings on many of the "Top Movie" lists for 2007. In a time when cinematic interests were turning to the fantastic and romantically dramatic "Clayton" presented a quasi-courtroom-drama that stood above the rest by its ability to convey an engaging narrative that left the viewer cinematically satisfied and morally challenged.

My Rating: 8/10

The "Reel Revelation": "Containing The Truth"

On the posters distributed to advertise "Michael Clayton" are written the words "THE TRUTH CAN BE ADJUSTED." This tag-line would define much of the suspense and moral tension that would make the film as popular as it became. As we watch the plot spiral out of control we also watch Clayton respond in kind, becoming more and more desperate to do whatever is necessary to keep the lid tight on the billion-dollar case his firm is slowly losing control of. And when the truth finally comes forward, when all of the key players cannot look away from the clear definition of right and wrong, of the good and the evil being committed around them, they either scatter or try to contain the truth, to bend it to their will. Is there a more desperate act the losing party can perform than to reach out of the coffin of defeat and attempt to convince the world of their innocence? Sometimes it works! Sometimes the truth can be contained and people can be convinced of something altogether untrue. But this is not true for all measures of truth, I assure you.

Maybe you've felt a certain way, been convinced of a certain feeling or inclination, or perhaps done something you were determined to keep hidden from the world. What kinds of things did you do to contain the truth? Did you spread lies contrary to what actually was, what had actually happened? Did you ignore the truth and push all of the conviction and angst as far away as possible...or as deep into your heart as possible so that you wouldn't feel the biting guilt any longer? What did you do? More importantly, did it work? Did the truth remain "contained"? If you're able to answer "yes" to that question then you've either attained an amazing ability to lie or you're very close to doing what you've been aching to do all along; confess.

The truth will come forward, and we must not fight against it when the time is right. Perhaps you've been in a relationship and have kept something from a person you love very much. After years of keeping this piece of information a secret you've gotten use to simply omitting the truth but feel the tinge of guilt every time you look them in the eye...you know you have something to share. Why live with that guilt?! 'It's not that bad...i've gotten use to it,' you say! This is not the way of peaceful living. In the graves where we lay the truth to rest dwell forces of great and terrible power. Those words are not too strong for those of us who have tried to contain what has always been meant to be set free.

For those of us who live under the Word of God and experience it's power in our lives we must strive to be open vessels of the message God has placed in us through the testimony of the Gospel. If you've ever tried to keep a lie a secret, try to keep the Truth of all Truths hidden from the rest of the world! Even the early Christians who could not openly share the Word of God and had to shroud their identities as believers in Jesus rejoiced in the Word of God because they knew it would one day pierce through every sinful barrier the world had built up against the greatest truth of all; Jesus saves and there is no other. This is the Truth that cannot be contained, not by the wicked will of man or the sordid agenda of this world. Let this Truth become the Truth you carry within you and share with all you encounter.

Lord, for trying to keep the truth a secret, we pray you forgive us. May the Truth of your Word contain our lives, that we may serve you every day. Amen.

See you tomorrow - E.T.