An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Tony Gilroy.
Cast: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack
Description: Michael Clayton is a revered 'fixer' for high profile New York law firms, discreetly clearing up clients' messes. When top litigator Arthur Edens suffers a mental breakdown and apparently tries to sabotage a multi-million dollar class action, Michael is called in to avert disaster. In the process, he becomes a target for counsel chief Karen Crowder, whose reputation rests on securing the right verdict.
Country: US. 2007. 119mins
Laying down the law: Tom Wilkinson and George Clooney are both outstanding as two corporate lawyers ground down by the misuse of their talents
Corporate lawyers are not the most loved of species and Tony Gilroy's first film as director doesn't do them any favours. They are presented as skilful vultures protecting the rich from those whom they've exploited - and it isn't at all surprising that George Clooney's Michael Clayton, a man with a previously well-buried conscience who is "janitor" for a successful firm, begins to question his way of life.
Called to a rich client who wants to get off a charge of mowing down a pedestrian, he goes to the accident spot, gets out of his car to look at some peaceful horses in a verdant field and thus escapes death: a bomb had been placed in his vehicle. If he wants to get out, someone else obviously wants him to leave in a hurry, too.
Meanwhile, his company, headed by Sydney Pollack's philosophical chief, has to defend an agro-chemical company being sued for negligence and the firm's chief lawyer (Tom Wilkinson) has had a breakdown. This is partially because he is in love with one of the chemical company's victims (Merritt Wever) but also because he hasn't been taking his medicine for depression. Fixer Clayton has to attempt to clear up the mess.
A gambling addict with an unsuccessful marriage and a failed restaurant on his neck, Clayton ponders the wreck of his life while avoiding the murderous attentions of the chemical company's chief counsel (Tilda Swinton). He is not in the happiest of situations but soldiers on with a new determination to do something moral for a change.
Gilroy, who wrote the Bourne series and has written this, can't resist moving backwards and forwards in time, and belabours us with a series of smart but sometimes obfuscating editing decisions which may cause the viewer some confusion. But he has still made an excellent thriller and secured stand-out performances from his cast.
Clooney has seldom been better as Clayton, a man beginning to feel that his skill is not exactly being put to good uses, while Wilkinson, as the attack-dog lawyer now convinced he's wasting his talent and collapsing under the strain, is as good as ever.
But it is Swinton, as the nervy chief counsel for the chemical company, who trumps them both. To see her faced by Clayton with the enormity of her position is to see a great actress at work in a film that's good enough to keep her at full stretch.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
What a strange response, Josephine. Yes the moral is suspect but the tension is held well, the characters are believable and Pollack is such a natural amoral lawyer. In my view it's the Swinton character with her sudden moral revision that lacks credibility - the acting is good but the premise isn't!
- Peter Bench, London
I am utterly amazed at the unanimously praising reviews for this film. I saw it and was stunned by how totally dull and uninteresting this movie can be. By pretending to be complex, the story moves back and forth, not that we'd notice much though, because from the start, the audience is totally left out from the so-convoluted happenings. If Clooney is your thing, then Clooney you do get and in big dose. Poor Tilda Swinton manages to do brilliantly with mean screen-time and with more than a few cliches to play with. Then after nearly two hours, things start to get clearer, you are well past caring and the moral of the story is that big corporations are evil and it takes a good resolute individual to get them to their knees. Wow, that's new and radical isn't it?
Don't bother!
- Josephine Thalbach, London
Morning:
11°c
