Michael Clayton is another really good film that is nominated for Best Picture.  Where there any really great films in 2007?  I’m starting to wonder.

George Clooney delivers a great performance as the title character and a man who finds himself in the middle of a life changing moral dilemma.  We painstakingly learn everything there is to know about Michael Clayton and watch as he unravels the horrible truth about a lawsuit his firm is handling (think Erin Brockovich).  The reality though is said best by one of the film’s characters, “Fifteen years in, I gotta tell you how we pay the rent?”  Michael Clayton, and his line of work, is no stranger to moral dilemmas.  So don’t expect a legal thriller about the poison in agricultural chemicals; but instead a film about a man finally deciding to do the right thing at the right time.

Academy Awards:

It is nominated for an astounding seven awards.  Tony Gilroy, most famous for screenwriting (Bourne series), is nominated for Best Director which I find a little insulting to Joe Wright.  Although George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson are excellent, I think Tilda Swinton is the only one with a chance of getting the award for her portrayal of an evil but secretly insecure CEO.  But even she is up against Cate Blanchett playing a man (always Oscar bait) and a brilliant performance by Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone.  I may be way off base, but I think there’s a good chance Michael Clayton will go home empty handed. 

So How Does It End? 

The ending is basically shown to you in the beginning…a movie mechanism that is kind of getting old.  Michael Clayton first does the wrong thing and takes money from the firm to pay off his debts.  But when his life is almost taken, he wakes up and decides to help catch the bad girl. 

I think this movie is being wrongly marketed as a suspenseful thriller.  It’s a smart script with interesting characters, but nothing about it really amazed me and I was certainly never on the edge of my seat.  I give it 3 out of 5