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FIXING A BROKEN MAN!
MICHAEL CLAYTON
(15A, general release)
*

George Clooney does some serious soul-searching here in his latest movie concerning corporate greed & power; their disdain for the ordinary people and one broken; disenchanted man's realization and regret concerning past mistakes and current plight! Tony Gilroy, who scripted all 3 of the Bourne movies, writes and marks his directorial debut with great care & aplomb as he proceeds to not just expose the ladder-climbing shallowness; selfishness and deceit of the all consuming commercial bandwagon but to show how it negatively affects the individual lives of the various people involved.

Clooney plays Michael Clayton, a "fixer" for one of the most prestigious law-firms in New York City. In his own words he's "not a miracle worker" but "a janitor" who discreetly and efficiently cleans up the embarrassing messes left behind by the firm. His streetwise savvy and contacts with the local police of whom his brother is one help him in his job of course making him an invaluable asset to the firm, but clearly not invaluable enough to make him a partner despite his considerable training and experience as a lawyer. The reasons for this become painfully obvious throughout the film. With Michael's insider knowledge on some of the firm's shadier dealings, the senior partners clearly see him as more of a outsider than an asset to the company.

Years later and now approaching middle age, the effects of this decision have clearly taken their toil upon him. He's now divorced; seriously in dept & disillusioned with his work, having bet all his savings on a failed restaurant venture and gambled the rest of it on regular; late night poker sessions. He now needs a lot of money and fast if he's going to stave off ruin and some very unpleasant people looking for repayment of some hastily arranged loans. If ever there was a definition of a mid-life crisis then Michael Clayton was going through it!
And as if all this wasn't demanding enough for Michael to deal with, he's been called in to deal with the spectacular and embarrassing nervous-breakdown of the firm's most skilled & valuable partner Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) who's defending them in a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit! Dealing with his own, much more exaggerated personal crises, Arthur strips down naked in the middle of a case (thankfully we're spared the sight of too much flesh) after having reached a sort of epiphany regarding the agri-pharmaceutical company

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