Rewind, Review, and Re-Rate: ‘Michael Clayton’: Big Corporation Kills Its Own Lawyer
Hollywood gets significant cinematic mileage, both documentaries and regular movies, out of storylines involving big corporations covering up devious dealings with cancer-causing chemicals. Similar to 1993’s “The Fugitive” and 2000’s “Erin Brockovich” before it, 2007’s legal suspense thriller “Michael Clayton” is an outstanding example of the genre.
Henry Clayton (Austin Williams, L) and dad Michael Clayton (George Clooney) have a heart-to-heart, in “Michael Clayton.” (Warner Bros.)
Tinker-Tailor-Soldier-Spy Clayton?
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a highly skilled “fixer” (or “janitor” by his description) for law firm Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen. He’s also a bagman (delivering illegal cash payments), former litigator, legal adviser, and dad. As his detective brother Gene (Sean Cullen) says, the cops think Michael’s a lawyer, the lawyers think Michael’s a cop, but Gene thinks Michael’s a card-gambling pain in the neck who asks for favors that sometimes jeopardize his own law enforcement career. But Michael’s the man when it comes to exploiting connections, legal loopholes, and cleaning up the law firm’s extracurricular messes.