Clooney Tunes.
There is a reason why despite being nominated in seven categories, Michael Clayton bagged one Academy Award. And even that, was ill deserved.
If you take a look at the trajectory that nanna Clooney has traversed since his Soderberg episode, you will flinch to note that nothing..and I mean NOTHING about Clooney ever changes.
The consistency in his performances is down-right malignant. Not only does he wear the same wardrobe, hair cut, lop-sided smile, he also manages quite complacently to maintain the exact same intonation pattern, no matter what situation, genre or movie – director or character.
In fact, almost every movie post Brockovich has the same treatment – purposefully sepia inked visuals that somehow, authenticate the ‘actual-ness’ of the events unfolding in as tiresomely an indistinguishable manner as any other Soderberg directed/produced movie.
The whole hand-held-camera-technique is a monstrous overkill - his alleged trademark style of movie making. And George plays such enormously unsurprising characters – with the glaring exception of Syriana (which was seriously note-worthy), you could put together a consortium of scenes from Good Bye and Good luck and mix em up with the Good German, Michael Clayton or even the Thin Red line and you won’t ever think there’s a problem with continuity – cept the intermittent bleeding of colour on screen.
Michael Clayton is an example of the potent nexus of power broking celebrities in what can best be summed up as dreary Hollywood. And while Tilda Swinton RULES as the Queen of Narnia, she’s indubitably lacklustre as Karen Crowder.
But, the movie won’t work, if all you can think of is Bob Dylan and his rickety voice churning cheesy Dylan favourites. Of course, Bob has no real connection with the movie.
Which is why, it took another sitting at the cinemas to watch the movie, without prejudice. And what happened was just the converse.
Michael Clayton, played by the suave George Clooney, is a fixer of things that need, well, fixing. An ex-litigator, Michael is considered by legal big-wigs as the miracle worker. His own take is a tad less flattering though (he calls himself a janitor). Cleaning up the mess of affluently humongous clients who, on the basis of the monthly retainer expect the law firm Michael works for, to bail them out of the stickiest of situations, Michael is a man without a soul. Or not, as it is later revealed.
A gambling addict, Michael deals with very real demons, which is why it’s easy to identify with his almost inertia like gloom. The movie is a very intelligent take on another Soderberg classic – Erin Brockovich. While Julia Roberts won the hearts of millions (as well as the Academy Award for her portrayal of the protagonist) with her freewheeling hairdo, short skirts, plunging necklines and a mouth faster than Quick Gun himself, Michael’s character is sans the frills or the theatrics of la Brockovich.
The pathos of a man who is duty-bound but not necessarily in conformity with the orders he needs to implement, George pulls quite a number on the audience watching. Everything one would consider consistently tiresome about the actor actually aids in this staggeringly honest performance.
But the movie deserves the accolades for two other phenomenally well crafted characters. The ever-so-politically-correct Tom Wilkinson plays the part of the bipolar litigator, with blood on his hands. Tom’s performance as the swashbuckling litigator who strips down to his waist (and beyond) during an imperative deposition is just the start of his superbly orchestrated epic meltdown.
Tilda Swinton belongs to that generation of actresses that have struck that marvellously accurate balance between the cerebrally poignant and emotional quotient in the movie making business. Her exacting performance as the clinically dispassionate and un-pretty Karen Crowder trying hard to make the all male corporate bastion her own is scrupulous in its detailing.
Sydney Pollack makes more than the cursory appearance in the movie as do other assorted and significantly unknown actors.
This stark tale of corporate malfeasance is a thought provoking cracker. The story is predictable, as is the end and the middle parts of it. Tony Gilroy delivers quite the punch with this broody narrative that everyone who can endure the time-consuming unravelling of a plot, must watch.
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