Back in the 1990s, lawyer turned writer John Grisham was the go to guy for stories about lawyers. With millions of copies of his books sold, and movie adaptations of them coming out seemingly every year, Grisham was so ever-present that I think readers and viewers eventually began to suffer from legal fatigue.
And while he wasn't entirely responsible for the adaptation of his novel "Surviving Christmas" (which wasn't about lawyers), a class action lawsuit could still be in the works for those who collectively didn't laugh at the resultant supposed comedy, "Christmas With the Kranks."
Yet, I digress, and despite the over-exposure of such lawyerly tales, I suppose there's always room for one more. Which is a good thing since "Michael Clayton" is a heck of a legal-based flick, right up there with the best Grisham-based pics. This one, however, comes not from a lawyer, but rather writer turned first time director Tony Gilroy, who makes quite an impressive debut with this offering.
Some critics and/or viewers will pounce on the fact that it looks, smells, and feels like a Grisham tale, and thus doesn't really seem that novel. They're certainly right on the first count. Then again, it's hard to make a story about lawyers, legal cases, and corruption without such obvious and inevitable comparisons to some of the best-known works.
Penned by Gilroy, the story focuses on the title character who -- somewhat akin to Harvey Keitel's role in "Pulp Fiction" -- is a "cleaner" (called a janitor here). He's the guy at the law firm who's called in to fix things when cease and desist orders don't have any effect. He isn't a killer like the judges in "The Star Chamber," but he's quite good at what he does, and viewers just love characters like his that have the ability to do what it takes, all with a heaping dose of aplomb.
With the wrong performer , however, the results easily could have been B-movie grade or even resulted in a cinematic mistrial. Thankfully, Gilroy strikes gold by casting George Clooney in the role. No stranger to smooth, charming, and unflappable characters, the actor might not stretch his thespian abilities too far, but he undoubtedly nails the part.
While it might be somewhat cliché that the character has his share of foibles, neither Clooney nor Gilroy overplay them, resulting in a flawed but always engaging onscreen creation that not only holds our interest, but also will likely have most, if not all viewers rooting for him to succeed.
Of course, such tales need some sort of central motivation, and that comes in the form of Tom Wilkinson as a top litigator who's suddenly popped a gasket or two. Having finally sensed the misguided life-path he's followed and/or suffering from a mental illness, he's stripped down at a deposition and then disappeared off the grid.
The fact that he's been working on a multi-billion dollar case for an important client makes finding him all the more necessary, and thus our title man is called into play. In true movie form, he then discovers there's more to the issue than a sudden desire to streak or go off one's meds, and from that point on, things become more complicated and even dangerous.
The general gist of all of that might seem too familiar, but the cast and crew put more than enough of a fresh spin on the material to make it work and then some. Clooney is terrific in the role, bringing nicely tuned nuances to the character, while Wilkinson is superb as the seemingly deranged but perhaps onto something loose cannon. Tilda Swinton is good as the client company's own version of a cleaner, while the likes of Sydney Pollack and the rest are more than ably up for their parts.
My only complaint is that the film goes the route of showing us part of the story, and then backs up to show us how we got there. While it nevertheless works here, it certainly wasn't necessary, and Gilroy pushes his luck a bit while trying to build tension for one particular scene where we already know the outcome based on the earlier footage, thus diffusing its effectiveness.
Yet, like a good litigator, the filmmaker manages to overcome that fault as well as the story's general familiarity and delivers a convincing argument and sound piece of cinematic storytelling. While it might seem like the second coming (or 5th, 6th or 7th) of Grisham, "Michael Clayton" is clear evidence that we're in the presence of what should be a formidable filmmaker. The film rates as a 7 out of 10.
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