Michael Clayton

By Aditya Mhatre at 23 February, 2008, 11:55 am

When you go into a film that�s been heavily nominated in various categories for a prestigious award, you do so with expectations. Clayton rides on those expectations and gives you back enough to come out feeling �cinema has some meaning� � it is not meant solely for entertainment purposes, there is an aspect of meaningfulness and posterity to it and films like Clayton reinforce your faith in the potency of cinema.

My awe right through and after the film was reserved for the veteran writer Tony Gilroy who makes his debut as director with Michael Clayton. When you�re many films old as a writer and are writing your own directorial debut, chances are that you will put more into it than you do for other films. But Gilroy restricts himself beautifully in his own creation, not letting the writer get the better of the director. I�m not aware if he intended to direct the film since its inception or decided upon it later, but either ways, both aspects of the film are so balanced, it is hard to believe that there is only one man behind it.

From all the promos that I saw of the film, I was led to believe that it was a character story, of Clayton, a fixer in high-profile matters, working for a law firm or contracted by them as and when things need to be cleaned up. However, the beauty of the writing and the direction takes you from the start that the film promises and moves you so swiftly into another zone, of a story told time and over again that you hardly realize you have made the transition until much later. Let me explain briefly why that credit must be given to the writer / director � (SPOILER AHEAD) the subject you have is that of a leak which can lead to a multi-billion dollar civil suit (sounds familiar? Ref: A Civil Action, Erin Brokovich, The Insider etc) � now your challenge as a writer / director is to tell the same story in a way that it feels new, exciting and involving. Clayton delivers on all counts and also avoids being homiletic or making it a �personal battle against the system� film (though some of those have also been brilliant ones). (SPOILER ENDS)

When the story begins � Michael Clayton is dispatched to Milwaukee where his colleague and personal friend, Arthur Edens has, in a moment of insanity or divinity, your perspective varying upon which side you belong to, stripped naked in a deposition room, in a multi-billion dollar class A action suit and is now being held by the police. He represents the law firm whose client, uNorth is, as has become a great American tradition now, in the wrong. But money buys most good things on earth, most importantly the best of lawyers, but excluding, as in this case, the insane ones or the ones whom the light of revelation has shone upon. The film begins with a Tom Wilkinson’s voiceover (a great performance by him), which, later in the film, becomes significant in this context.

Michael is supposed to control the �issue�, which translates into his objective i.e. being to get Edens admitted into a facility which reassures their client uNorth that Clayton�s law firm is on top of things and which also ensures that the law firm�s merger with a British partner comes through without hassles. However, Clayton is unable to get through to Edens, he hears him, but doesn�t listen to him. Clayton is the only man who wants to protect Edens, while plugging the hole in the wall that Edens has caused. For other stakeholders, Edens is a thorn that is going to burst an inflated balloon.

Clayton is not in prime form either, with his personal life scattered, his bank balance not adding up enough for him to save a restaurant that he hangs on to as his �getaway� when he wants out and a potential hierarchical problem at work which is imminent with the merger taking shape. For the entire length of the film, until the pre-climax, Clayton, the janitor, is in dithers with the mess he is expected to clean up. No matter which way he goes, he finds himself banging his head against walls, with nothing giving way. In a softer scene, Clayton pleads with an elusive Edens saying, �What do I have to do to get through to you Arthur? Because I really need to get through to you.� But he doesn�t, not to him, not to anyone.

George Clooney is thoroughly convincing as Clayton, and while bringing the hard-headedness that is intrinsic to his character he plays it with such vulnerability which keeps you so close to his character that you never leave his side. Tilda Swinton as Karen Crowder, the chief legal executive of uNorth is as believable when she is playing the hard-boiled top executive as she is in her personal moments of diffidence. Sydney Pollack brings great authority to the part of Marty Bach, one of the partners of the enormous law firm and Clayton’s one-time mentor and seeming friend.

The only time in the film when I felt the film walked along with the audience instead of was when it comes back to the first scene and we see things from a different point of view. While I believed this sequence lasted longer than it must have, it did lead up to a rather deserving crescendo in the following scene when Clayton meeds Crowder. (SPOILER HERE) He tells her, �I�m the guy you buy, not the guy you kill. Are you so fucking blind that you can�t see that?� (SPOILER ENDS)

The revelation I had midway through the film was that in films like these, the audience is put in the place of God. While every character only has his or her micro view of the world, it is only the audience who sees everything, like we believe some God of ours must. The saddest part is that we can do nothing with that knowledge; we can�t set anything right; just like our God can�t either. The battles must play themselves out, it seems like the only option, possibly the worst one, but then again, life without reality�s bite would be utopia, wouldn�t it?

Watch Clayton � as soon as you can. Good films don�t last long at theatres. Buy a DVD too if you like, but watch it in the theatre, give it its due. There aren�t many films that command it nowadays, let�s do what we must for the few good ones.

The author, an aspiring film maker, also blogs on http://kartickslongroad.blogspot.com/

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Categories : Politics & Society