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Jan 29, 2015Nursebob rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Michael Clayton is a janitor of sorts. He’s a company lawyer who specializes in clearing the names of guilty clients as long as they have the cash to pay for it. It’s not that he’s an evil man, but his personal values are often forced to take a backseat to the financial pressures imposed by his messy divorce, failed business venture, and expensive gambling addiction. His professional life is a high-pressured mix of dubious ethics and legal loopholes aimed more at maximizing company profits than insuring justice is done. But when one of his esteemed colleagues suffers a mental meltdown it jars him out of his own moral paralysis and he is forced to confront the creature he has become. This is a brutal and despairing film that is as infuriating as it is mesmerizing. Shot in somber hues of blue and grey it presents us with a bleak corporate landscape filled with lost souls and an all-consuming hunger...for money, for power, for prestige. Yet there are unexpected moments of purity amidst the debris; the plot of a child’s fantasy novel provides a mystical subtext to the main story for instance, and Clayton’s sudden epiphany on a mist-shrouded hillside has an undeniable spiritual intensity to it. When the ending came it was not unexpected, but I found myself on the edge of my seat just the same. Michael Clayton may not be a unique film but it is written with great style and intelligence, not to mention the wonderful performances. Very well done.