MICHAEL CLAYTON [R]
Far better of a follow-up to George Clooney’s Oscar win for Syriana than The Good German was, Bourne scribe Tony Gilroy’s debut as a director is the kind of legal thriller that John Grisham movies of old never quite succeeded in being – engrossing without gimmickry and smart without being smarmy. Clooney plays Michael Clayton, a down-on-his-luck “fixer” for a large New York law firm, the guy who typically shows up to a rich client’s house after a drunken hit-and-run, instructs him on exactly how to act (after cutting him down to size) and then says, “I was never here” before disappearing into the night. Putting the light-hearted fun of his popular Ocean’s movies aside, Clooney effortlessly shifts into heavy-duty actor mode here, exuding an air of confidence as he makes his guy with problems an endearing and unlikely hero. The interwoven plots work so well, too, with Tom Wilkinson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) dazzling as a lawyer whose nervous breakdown and ensuing onset of conscience threatens Clayton’s firm and Tilda Swinton is just as icy as she was as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia. It all adds up to the kind of satisfying, slow burn, grown-up entertainment that, like the changing leaves, indicates that fall is here, with the winter’s snow heralding Oscar gold for definite contenders like this one. –Robert Newton