Movie review - "Michael Clayton" (2007) ***

Tony Gilroy is one of my favourite screenwriters and its great to see him making an assured directorial debut. George Clooney is the title character, a "fixer" at a law firm. He hates it, but you know having worked in a law firm I'd have thought being a fixer was a pretty interesting job - every day a bit different, full of unusual challenges,and you'd have a dirt file that would ensure you had a healthy retirement fund. But Cloons becomes disillusioned, though not as disillusioned as Tom Wilkinson, who flips out in one of those "movie cases" (big evil law firm representing chemical company being sued by poor-and-dying-but-honest farmers) making Cloons re-evaluate life. Very strong performances, including Tilda Swinton as a sympathetic baddie(maybe that should be "empathetic"), Wilkinson (what a great post-Full Monty career he's having), and Sydney Pollack (no wonder Pollack is such a good director he has such presence you'd do whatever he tells you to do).

You know how in conspiracy movies they don't normally show how people are killed so their dead body turns up mysteriously as a supposed suicide? Well, this film shows how you go about it - contacting the necessary men, giving the orders, how the break in and kill someone to make it look like suicide. Its very educational. In fact, the two hired goons in this film are a lot more effective "fixers" than Clooney, who in his two big fixing scenes is pretty useless (to a client who's run over someone he says "get a lawyer"; sent to get Wilkinson, Wilkinson escapes). Around the two-thirds mark this started to lose its way,mostly I'm guessing because Clooney becomes passively caught up in events. I think the final shot, holding on Clooney over the end credits, works.