Michael Clayton…

~Saturday~  Bob owns the 2007 movie, Michael Clayton, and I chose it to watch. Obviously he’s seen it before, but he watched it again with me.

Any movie that stars George Clooney is a draw for me, and he was as handsome as ever in this one. I recognized at least one other actor in it, Tom Wilkinson, whom I remembered from The Full Monty.

The synopsis

A law firm brings in its “fixer” to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multi-billion dollar class action suit. ~ From IMDB

The trailer

My thoughts and observations

  • Overall, I enjoyed this movie a lot. With that said, I’m a little “gun shy” these days of plot lines and/or scenes that involve medical or healthcare stuff, so some of the scenes about Tim Wilkinson’s character’s medical issues wound a little knot in my stomach.
  • I felt for George Clooney’s character, Michael Clayton, as more and more pressure fell on him during the course of the film.
  • In the synopsis, Michael Clayton, is described as a “fixer,” but having watched Scandal, he doesn’t come anywhere near the level of fixer that Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope is.
  • My personal opinion is that “Michael Clayton” is a terrible name for this movie. Better possibilities that come to mind include “Memorandum #229,” “The Fixer,” or “The Janitor.” Although, Roger Ebert argues in his October 4, 2007 review of the movie that, “Naming the film after Michael Clayton is an indication that the story centers on his life, his loyalties, his being just about fed up.”
  • Themes touched on in this movie included:
    • Unethical agrochemical companies
    • Gambling
    • Drug addiction
    • Family dysfunction
    • Justice for a friend
  • I gave two thumbs up to this movie.

Have you seen this movie? If so, what did you think of it?

Leave a Comment