A big law firm, in the process of defending a chemical company, has to send in their fixer who is named Clayton, to settle down an imbalanced attorney (Tom Wilkinson) who has developed a conscience and stopped taking his medication. We are stunned to see Clayton's car blow up and the rest of the movie portrays how that happened. A woman named Crowder (Tilda Swinton) is responsible for supervising a billion dollar class-action suit and meets with Clayton (George Clooney) to get a handle on the unstable attorney. There are a number of wonderful touches by debut director Tony Gilroy such as Clayton's son's excitement about a fictional book and a brother who never seems to avoid rainstorms of dung falling from his sky. There are men who are spying on Clayton and his partner attorney. The story is nicely fleshed out and we see how money drives the decisions made by the chemical company. MICHAEL CLAYTON reminded me of THE AMERICAN which had the same star doing questionable things for questionable people. The characters are terrific but a bit more action would have made for an awesome movie albeit we are dealing with an intellectual deliberative measure of society. [4.1 stars]
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