"Michael Clayton"

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  • #16
    Re: "Michael Clayton"

    Jake is absolutely right. What about the guy with the Jaguar that hit the jogger? Was that not a "clean-up" assignment for Clayton? That was an incredibly powerful scene and perfectly demonstrated what it was that he did.

    P.S. Maybe the only kind of "cleaner" people can understand is like Keitel in Pulp Fiction.

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    • #17
      Re: "Michael Clayton"

      What he did with the jogger, a whole lot of nothing. "I know people in the area who can take care of this." Clayton is nothing more than a roledex full of names, whoa, really exciting there. I didn't fall asleep, but I wasn't full throttle away either.

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      • #18
        Re: "Michael Clayton"

        Originally posted by Charli View Post
        What he did with the jogger, a whole lot of nothing. "I know people in the area who can take care of this."

        SPOILERS

        But that's his job: to get people on the brink of disaster matched up with those who can try to save them. Clearly MC and his company make a commission out of it, but that's his job. That's the point of the film. He can take so many of these dead-end jobs, he can go down and dirty with the worst of them, but he redeems himself when he brings down Swinton's firm and does the right thing.

        I found this movie one of the more mature and adult efforts I've seen in the last twelve months. Reminded me of "Network".

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        • #19
          Re: "Michael Clayton"

          Originally posted by Charli View Post
          I can write a character who talks

          If you're saying that you can write dialogue that is half as articulate, authentic, knowing, menacing, organic and full of subtext as in this one, then you are a better writer than me. I look forward to seeing your movies when they come out.



          If I didn’t already know that There Will Be Blood is going to kick everyone’s teeth out later this year, I would call Michael Clayton the best film of the year. It reminded me very much of Network. Not that there’s any satire here, but Tom Wilkinson’s character is so Howard Beale.

          This was so much more realistic to me than films like The Insider and A Civil Action, even though those are based on ‘true’ events.

          Calling the dialogue smart is an understatement. Whoever wrote this is smarter than the characters being portrayed here, and that’s pretty humbling to me as a writer. And the character dynamics are so intense, you’re never quite sure who has the upper hand in any given scene.

          Obviously with a picture that’s 90% dialogue there’s a risk of sticking with a two-shot tv-movie aesthetic, but Robert Elswit’s photography elevates this to a thing of beauty (I just realized he is the DP on There Will Be Blood as well…. which is a shame because no one is beating Roger Deakins this year).

          As far as Clayton’s brother bailing him out, there has never been, nor will there ever be a film made without one or two major plot coincidences. As long as they are smart and organic and don’t tip over into contrivance, you’ll get no complaints from me.

          8.5 out of 10.

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          • #20
            Re: "Michael Clayton"

            Jake - yes it was his job to be a roledex, which brings me back to - boring. He yells at a guy and tells him I know someone you should call. That method of 'fixing' just doesn't make for good 'showing' on the big screen, is what I'm saying.

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            • #21
              Re: "Michael Clayton"

              Clayton’s job as a fixer revolves around 2 things: Talking to people (what he’s good at ) and handing out fat envelopes full of cash. That’s what a fixer does. That’s the real world. There’s no car chases or kung fu or shootouts. If that’s what you’re expecting, you walked into the wrong movie. You want The Transporter.

              The reason he didn’t do anything to help the hit and run driver is because that scene occurred at a point in the film where he had already given up on his own firm. His friend was dead, and he had just sold himself out for $80,000. He simply did not care any more. I don’t think many people really understand this scene or the movie.

              This is one of the most intense movies I’ve seen all year. If you went to the bathroom during it you would be lost. That is the complete opposite of boring.

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              • #22
                Re: "Michael Clayton"

                I'm with kint on this. One of the best and most intelligent--key word, that--movies of the year, hands down.

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                • #23
                  Re: "Michael Clayton"

                  Can't wait to see Clooney, er, I mean, this intelligent, well written movie.

                  Last edited by LIMAMA; 10-17-2007, 05:56 AM. Reason: too early in the morning
                  http://www.pjmcilvaine.com/

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                  • #24
                    Re: "Michael Clayton"

                    Of all the dozens of reviews I've read on Clayton, in newspapers, magazines, blogs and everywhere else, none have summed up what the film is about better than this anonymous poster on another message board.

                    I wish I could articulate my opinions this well:


                    "For my money, Clayton was the corporate thriller of our time (can you name another?). In its own way - it's shaped like a genre film, though I wouldn't quite call it one - Clayton speaks most poignantly to our post-Enron culture of corporate cynicism and complacency.

                    We've become so used to the idea of being swindled by these mammoth corporate conglomerates (and the government brethren who line their pockets) that our cynicism has almost made true moral outrage seem borderline insane. Almost. Clayton burrows into that defeatist feeling - you feel it in Clooney's performance, in the way he seems to be nursing some inner sickness that nothing can abate - and then, in its final showdown, brings you right back into the light, where he reclaims some sense of himself. Which is, if you're looking for thematic resonance, the film's most prominent strand. It asks who Michael Clayton is - janitor, miracle worker, suave lawyer or a broken man - and then shows us, in those harrowing minutes in the cab, the best version of himself. We are Michael Clayton - unsure of what the increasingly polluted and complex world is making of us, or what exactly any of us can do to change it, but aware that the ground is starting to sink beneath us. Or maybe any of us could be Clayton - or Tilda Swinton's character, or if we're especially lost, Sydney Pollack's. And all of that talk - all of the exchanges that play like the actors are volleying razorblades - fades into Tony Gilroy "showing" us who we could be (and leaves us contemplating the possible consequences of it).

                    So few great films are recognized by the academy these days, but don't let that undersell the virtues of an expertly written film that seems to be the spiritual heir - a second cousin if not a direct descendent - of Paddy Chayefsky's best work."

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                    • #25
                      Re: "Michael Clayton"

                      Yes, I would agree with that assessment wholeheartedly.

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                      • #26
                        Re: "Michael Clayton"

                        enjoyed this all around!

                        The collective work of the actors is definitely on par with the
                        great work from The Insider, which earned 7 Oscar noms.

                        I'd be overjoyed if Wilkinson, Swinton, and Clooney get nods,
                        and Gilroy for the screenplay.

                        I'd still rate Russell Crowe's work capturing Wigand as superior
                        to Clooney's work.

                        But I found the Michael Clayton story more interesting than the Jeffrey Wigand story.

                        Although the B Story (the bar) in MC was just kinda meh, and some of the transitions into the
                        the B Story were jarringly abrupt.

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