Light of Gray

Clooney in Fine Form as an Attorney Caught Between Two Unappealing Choices

Michael Clayton is shot through with gray, starting with George Clooney's hair and continuing with the drabness that saturates the film. At one point one of the characters mentions life as being steeped in that noncommittal color, but one look at Clooney's wardrobe puts the lie to that, at least as far as this movie is concerned. As the titular character, the fixer of a major New York law firm, Clooney hesitantly picks his way through the legal underbelly while trying to cover a debt incurred thanks to the failure of a restaurant he had opened. When a colleague defending an agribusiness corporation accused of environmental malfeasance goes off the deep end and starts spouting the truth, thus threatening the firm's entire case, Clayton is faced with the prospect of choosing to save either his wallet or his soul.

Gray may be its prevailing color, but Michael Clayton's message is purely black and white, as much as Clayton's shirt and tie combos. There is an obvious right and an obvious wrong here, and none of the hazy messiness that slops up real life. And so the filmmakers wisely choose not to focus on the corporate evil or even on the legal industry's sleaziness, but on Clayton's character arc as he deals with the repercussions of his personal and professional decisions. This is Clooney's movie, and he's terrific in it. Unlike in most of his prior efforts, the charm and charisma are given to Tom Wilkinson, who does fine work with it, and Tilda Swinton nicely humanizes what could have been a thankless role, that of the self-doubting corporate counsel working with Clayton's firm. Ultimately, though, it's the star's quiet performance as a man coming to terms with the awful work he's been doing that makes the film worthwhile.

Rating: **** (of 5)