Michael Clayton (film)

Plot

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a "fixer" for a prestigious New York City law firm, using his connections and knowledge of legal loopholes for clients' benefit. Although he is paid well enough, he is divorced, addicted to gambling, and faced with a large debt when his restaurant fails. After leaving a clandestine poker game to deal with Greer (Denis O'Hare), a client involved in a hit-and-run incident, Michael drives back, stopping at a field, where some horses are standing on a hill. When he climbs the hill to gaze at them, his car explodes and burns.

The narrative moves back to four days earlier. Michael is $75,000 in debt from a restaurant investment he entered with his brother Timmy, which collapsed when Timmy used the restaurant's funds to fuel his drug habits. Michael, having gone to a loan shark to raise the money, refuses to give up on his brother and is held responsible for the debt, given one week to come up with the money. Meanwhile, one of the firm's leading attorneys, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has a manic episode in the middle of a deposition in Milwaukee involving a multibillion-dollar, six-year-long class action lawsuit against U-North, an agricultural products conglomerate. Michael arrives in Milwaukee and bails Arthur out of jail, after finding out he's no longer taking his medication, but Arthur escapes from their hotel room in the middle of the night.

Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), U-North's general counsel, discovers that Arthur had come into possession of a confidential U-North document detailing the company's decision to manufacture a weed killer it knew to be carcinogenic. Karen brings this to the attention of U-North's CEO Don Jeffries (Ken Howard), who puts her in contact with two hit men secretly on retainer (Robert Prescott and Terry Serpico). She contracts them to follow Arthur and bug his apartment and phone. When they report that Arthur is building a case to expose his own client, Karen approves of their taking drastic measures. The men murder Arthur in such a way as to make it look like an accidental drug overdose or suicide.

Michael, saddened by Arthur's death, becomes suspicious upon learning that U-North was planning a settlement just a few days before, and that Arthur had booked a flight to New York for one of the plaintiffs, named Anna (Merritt Wever). She tells him that no one knew of her conversations with Arthur, not even her attorney, yet Michael's firm somehow knew of Arthur's conversations with the U-North plaintiffs. With the help of his other brother Gene (Sean Cullen), a police detective, Michael gets access to Arthur's sealed apartment and, finding a bottle of champagne and two glasses in the refrigerator, suspects Arthur arranged to meet Anna. There is also a copy of Realm and Conquest, a fantasy novel which Michael's son Henry had recommended to both Michael and Arthur, with several pages evidently highlighted and annotated by Arthur, among which is a receipt from a photocopy shop being used as a bookmark.

Michael is caught in the apartment and arrested for trespassing, but Gene bails him out. Using the receipt, Michael discovers that Arthur had ordered 3,000 copies of the confidential U-North document. Michael takes one copy of the document with him. The hit men, who are now following him, also obtain a copy, which they provide to Karen. Michael is about to show his boss, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), the document in his possession. Before he can do so, he is offered a renewed employment contract as well as the $80,000 he had requested from Marty to cover his debt. As a condition, Marty's associate, Barry Grissom (Michael O'Keefe), operating on the assumption that Michael may be shaking down the firm based upon what he has found out about U-North's activities, imposes a confidentiality agreement on Michael to prevent him from divulging any information that might damage U-North's case. This reveals to Michael that Marty and Barry already know about U-North's cover-up.

One of the hit men rigs Michael's car with a bomb, but is forced to leave the job unfinished when Michael suddenly abandons his high-stakes poker game after receiving a phone call summoning him to meet the hit-and-run client in a remote part of Orange County. He is followed by the hit men, who have trouble tracking him, but eventually get close enough to detonate the radio-controlled bomb. However, Michael had already left the car by the road to approach three horses standing motionless on a hilltop. The tableau resembles an illustration in the book he had found in Arthur's apartment. When the bomb explodes, the horses bolt. Michael runs to the burning car, throws some of his personal effects into it, and escapes into the woods.

Later, at a U-North board meeting at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel, Karen proposes that the board approve a new settlement in the class action lawsuit against the company. She leaves the room to let the board of directors deliberate. She is shocked when Michael confronts her in the foyer, since she believed him to be dead. He informs her that he has possession of the U-North memo, and knows about her role in Arthur's murder and the subsequent attempt on his own life. He goads Karen into offering him $10 million for his silence. Karen reluctantly agrees, whereupon Michael reveals a cellphone in his pocket that has conveyed their conversation to Gene. Jeffries comes out of the board meeting to check on her. Alarmed by Michael's presence, he calls out for security guards, but police arrive and arrest him and Karen instead. Michael hands the cellphone to Gene, then leaves the building, and hails a cab. He tells the driver, "Gimme 50 dollars' worth, just drive", as the film ends.

Cast

Theatrical

The film premiered August 31, 2007 at the Venice Film Festival; was shown at the American Films Festival of Deauville on September 2, 2007; and at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2007. It opened in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2007, and at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2007. The film opened in limited release in the United States on October 5, 2007, and opened in wide release in the US on October 12, 2007. The film grossed USD $10.3 million on the opening week. It was re-released on January 25, 2008. The film has grossed $49 million at the North American domestic box office, and a total of $92.9 million worldwide.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on February 19, 2008. The DVD contains deleted scenes and a commentary by writer/director Tony Gilroy. On March 11, 2008 the movie was also released on HD DVD.

Critical response

Michael Clayton received critical acclaim, and has a "certified fresh" score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 197 reviews with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. The critical consensus states: "Michael Clayton is one of the most sharply scripted films of 2007, with an engrossing premise and faultless acting. Director Tony Gilroy succeeds not only in capturing the audience's attention, but holding it until the credits roll." The film also has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 36 critics indicating "universal acclaim".

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A" saying that it was "better than good, it just about restores your faith". Roger Ebert gave it a full four stars and Richard Roeper named it the best film of the year. It was also Richard Schickel's top film of 2007, and he called it "a morally alert, persuasively realistic and increasingly suspenseful melodrama, impeccably acted and handsomely staged by Tony Gilroy". Time magazine said that "Michael Clayton is not an exercise in high-tension energy; you'll never confuse its eponymous protagonist with Jason Bourne. But it does have enough of a melodramatic pulse to keep you engaged in its story and, better than that, it is full of plausible characters who are capable of surprising—and surpassing—your expectations".

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.

Awards

Nominations

Soundtrack

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Michael Clayton was released on September 25, 2007 on the Varèse Sarabande label. The soundtrack was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.