Michael Clayton

In his directorial debut, Tony Gilroy (also the writer) is fantastic. The writing and acting moves the movie seamlessly through the four day flashback of Clooney's titular character. The story is simple, corrupt litigators and moral and ethical dilemmas that result from a health related class action lawsuit. Where the story strikes gold is in its lack of detail regarding the case itself. Too many legal dramas spend an unnecessary amount of time setting up the payoff, but what that tends to do is complicate the heart of the story, which is simply justice. Clooney delivers his best performance since Syriana, but the scene stealer here is Tom Wilkinson. At this point, I expect him to win the supporting actor Oscar in the same way I expected Nicholson to win last year for the Departed. He is absolutely brilliant. His character's dialogue doesn't hurt much either. Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack also deliver great performances, which leads one to believe that this may be a film full of nominations this year.

Clooney is a lawyer who has a mysterious role within a large firm, labeled simply as "special counsel". He is in fact a problem solver, a self-described janitor of sorts. He finds himself in a moral and ethical pickle as one of the firm's pending cases has some complications and his services become required. He finds his role of janitor turn to investigator and back to janitor before the film is through, and he does it with an understated performance. Not the Clooney we're all used to, but the one that will win him awards.

I would expect a Wilkinson nod, perhaps Clooney and even possibly Swinton when the nominations are announced. Don't be surprised if this is up for best picture or best director as well. This is a smart film that is carried by the story and the acting from beginning to end. 9/10.