This was a good movie but does not compete with the other movies that came out this year....No Country for Old men, In The Valley of Elah, There Will Be Blood, The Bourne Ultimatum, Zodiac, Eastern Promises, Sicko, Juno....well at least those are the ones that I have seen that I liked better.
Wasn't really anything unique about this movie. I think we have seen many movies like this before. This was had good writing, good directing, and very good acting. I don't think it was great in any of those categories.
I agree with you and that is why a story like this is often better dealt with in a book where the author can take as long as they want to develop the story.
No doubt real life can provide us with plenty of examples for both sides of the argument and the movie wasn't kind to the chemical company.
I realize the bomb was not a time bomb and that the two guys in the car were going to detonate it. My only issue was that as they are getting close he happens to decide to stop and look at the horses on the freaking hill and contemplate what a **** his life has become.
I realize that for the movie to end the way it did they need for Clayton to fake his death, but I do have a question on that point.
Even with the bomb and the fire wouldn't part of his body been found in the wreckage?
My only issue with the movie was when Swinton's character was presenting the $600M settlement to the board of directors, she said the tax writeoff will basically pay for itself. Unless UNorth was in the 100% tax bracket, this doesn't make any sense.
I thought he pulled over at the horses because of this bit of dialogue.
Arthur Edens: Michael, I have great affection for you and you live a very rich and interesting life, but you're a bag man not an attorney. If your intention was to have me committed you should have kept me in Wisconsin where the arrest report, the videotape, eyewitness reports of my inappropriate behavior would have had jurisdictional relevance. I have no criminal record in the state of New York, and the single determining criteria for involuntary commitment is danger. Is the defendant a danger to himself or to others. You think you got the horses for that? Well good luck and God bless, but I'll tell you this: the last place you want to see me is in court.
Michael Clayton: I'm not the enemy.
Arthur Edens: Then who are you?
anyone who thinks the Swinton performance is good hasn't met a big shot General Council of a large public company. I mean, chick looked like she would pee herself when confronted.
I don't exactly run in CEO circles, but I've been around enough high ranking lawyers to know that if they have the balls to kill someone they won't look like they're having a breakdown when questioned by a couple of board members or some scab attorney.
them movie is completely unrealistic for anyone that has worked in corporate law...just another anti-corporation movie from hollywood. swinton was by far the most unrealistic character in the show along with the head litigator that went crazy...of course a lot of people unfortunately liked the movie because they believe everything they see and read.
I thought the movie was solid but not terribly memorable. Clooney has definitely won me over as an actor. He's come a long way from the look-down-look-up mannerism he ran into the ground on TV.
spoiler alert
bularry, interesting point, but I disagree. She is tough up until she has to make the moral decision to have someone killed. This takes her into a whole new league of hardball. I'd like to think that most persons in her position would be similarly haunted by their own decision to approve murder. Also, she hadn't had enough time by the end of the movie to grow comfortable with the decision. (One of the great aspects of Woody Allen's last great movie, "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
I tend to agree with the opinions that Michael Clayton is not on the level of the other nominees. I thought Juno was the most complete movie, but nothing this year grabbed me as something great and memorable. Good year for film, not a great year for film, IMHO.
Granted, I watched the movie right before the Oscars, but even though I didn't realize she had been nominated, my first thought afterward was that she ought to be.