Monday, 1 October 2007

Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton is Erin Brockovich with George Clooney instead of Julia Roberts. It has taken me from the time I watched this (12.10pm on Sunday) until now to figure that out. This either means the film is very good, or my brain has slipped a gear again.

I don't think I've sat through a slower film in my life. And yet, I didn't get bored or restless once. The film holds your attention the whole way through. It's good, and gets you to use your brain the whole way through. Nothing is handed to you on a plate, you need to work certain elements out for yourself. Not that it is a thinking film, it's just a film where you need to pay attention to the details. I'm not explaining this well, am I?

OK, let's start again. Clooney is described as giving the performance of his career in this film, which I can understand (although I preferred him in "Good Night, and Good Luck"). He's playing Michael Clayton, a sort of trouble shooter for a law firm who's fed up with his life that seems to be falling out of his control. Certain things happen that make him question if he's even in the right job, and then he spends most of the movie trying to solve his own problems at the same time as solving his company's problems, which often have mutually exclusive results.

It's got a great ending to the film, because you think it's going one way, then it goes another and when you leave, you realise it actually went a third way that you didn't see on screen.

If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about, click here. (Warning: Massive Plot Spoilers!)

It does resort to a rather sloppy, in my opinion, narrative technique of showing you events happening, and then fades to "Four Days Earlier", which I've never liked as a method of storytelling.

I'm not going to give you any of the plot, because even if I did, it still wouldn't spoil the film for you. There's more going on in the film than I could ever describe in a review of it.

Look, if you liked Erin Brocovich, you'll like this. Oh god, now Duncan is going to kill me for using a comparison.

Score: Ummm.....B-? really I don't know how to score it. I enjoyed watching it, but couldn't really recommend it to a friend as it's a very personal taste kind of thing.

OQ: I am Shiva, goddess of death!

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