CINEMA: Michael Clayton

Back in the late 1970s/early 1980s director Sydney Pollack made a string of thoughtful, intelligent movies with a slow burn (Absence Of Malice, The Electric Horseman), and so it seems fitting that he has a significant role here as a performer in another thoughtfully provocative movie that takes its time to tell its story.

He stars as Marty Bach, one partner in a high-powered law firm that employs Michael Clayton (George Clooney) to do its dirty work. If a mess has to be cleaned up, then Clayton handles it; if someone needs to keep his mouth shut, then he will ensure silence reigns. But when another partner, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), starts to spout off about dirty deeds concerning a chemical company represented by the firm, Clayton is uneasy. He has to deal with the new executive at the company, the steely Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), and something tells him all is not as it seems. Slowly, inevitably, he starts to peel back the layers of lies and conspiracy to reveal the truth – and what he finds chills him to the bone.

This is a dark, dignified, beautifully put together film that gets more intense as it slowly and purposefully paces to its conclusion. Although it does start out in a rather confusing series of seemingly disconnected scenes (it is not told in chronological order), as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place so the tension mounts. George Clooney is superb as the disillusioned Clayton who feels he has somehow let his life slip into a grey area and now sees an opportunity to redeem it. Equally good is Tom Wilkinson as Edens, a man whose troubled conscience sends him to the brink of madness. Then there’s Tilda Swinton, breathtaking as the company woman who will sacrifice everything for her job. The final confrontation between Clooney and Swinton is a masterclass in acting, a perfectly poised battle of brinkmanship to see who will hold their nerve. This is not a shoot-‘em-up adrenalin burst of a movie, but a richly detailed, measured observation of the human condition. Expect Oscar nominations. Dee Pilgrim