Michael Clayton
2007 · Directed by Tony Gilroy
Original language: English
- drama
- thriller
- crime
The story
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.
What it’s like
Cold, rain-smeared Manhattan light and a palette of steel grey, dull beige and sickly fluorescent white give Michael Clayton a clinical, slightly sickened look, with director Tony Gilroy favouring restrained handheld movement that tightens around faces and then pulls back to cramped office corridors and glass-walled boardrooms. The score by James Newton Howard is sparse and tense, often dropping to near silence so that footsteps, traffic hum and the click of a phone become the loudest things in the room. The vibe is weary, paranoid unease with a dry, bruised humour, the kind of film that suits a late-night watch alone or a focused weekday evening when you want your attention held. Pacing is deliberate and layered, with scenes that breathe and then snap into urgency, and the emotional register stays grounded and adult. Its central figure is a burnt-out fixer slowly confronting the compromises he has made, and the arcs of the other characters tilt toward moral reckoning rather than release. Violence is sudden and brief rather than graphic, with a death and an attempted suicide shown plainly, and the sexual content is minimal. It suits viewers who enjoy tense, character-driven thrillers about corporate power and conscience.
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