Michael Clayton

written and directed by Tony Gilroy
USA 2007

Rather than just another issue-based left hook, Michael Clayton delivers a more cinematic glimpse at the underbelly of an otherwise canopied corporate world. Although the plot centers around a law firm and its mega-corporate client's criminal negligence, writer-now-director Tony Gilroy concentrates instead on the upper level power struggles involved, and deftfully brings to life an exciting interplay of major corporate movers and shakers. You might think this sounds like an irresponsible blockbuster stunt, going so far as to foresake its centripetal issue (corporate greed and the human costs), but happily this film is refreshingly far from typical Hollywood material. Gilroy keeps the morality theme interesting by removing his titular character one step from the dilemma of conscience (Clayton is played by an ever-resourceful George Clooney, who has mastered the puppy-dog trick of channeling a tendency to appear vulnerable into shere loveableness). The guy with the dilemma is Tom Wilkinson's Arthur Edens, something of a Peter Finch character from 1976's Network, who spits hellfire and brimstone at Clayton eventually in vain. Clayton is unaffected not because he's a cold corporate drone, but because he has a kid, a mortgage, debt, retirement anxiety, a family member with a personal problem. He's dealing with a lot of stressful shit, and now you're asking him to care about humanity?

If these things sound familiar it's because they happen to just about everybody. Gilroy attempts to show that these big money Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Corporate Robots have issues like the rest of us, and they're just trying to stay afloat in the arduous journey that is life. Corporate interests aren't happy when they poison communities with byproducts, but they're locked into a system that forces them to put aside morals in the name of personal stability.

Gilroy takes it too far, though. The end is a pitiful Hollywood bit of wrapped-up closure, where Clayton and the rest of those on the correct end of the moral spectrum get back at the bad guys. The point is that everyone is a victim, even those bad ones. The system is the problem, and Gilroy makes no further attempt to examine it. His cinema chops are fine, and it's a nice ride while it lasts, but it's almost as if this director is another character in his own story. He's got a job to do, a career, probably a family, etc. Eden's ethically-charged ranting falls on Gilroy's deaf ears, too, and though a nice film comes out of it, the issue is completely gone.