The bad news? You paid to see Ocean's Thirteen, sucker.
The good news? George Clooney, bank account freshly plumped by your misspent dollars, scrubs off the Old Spice smoothness to deliver the whip-smart Michael Clayton.
It's a return to the sort of crisp, mahogany-solid filmmaking that went out of style with Betamaxes and drive-ins -- before thrillers were "high-octane" engines of illogical momentum -- back when they could be satisfying slow burns that gripped you from start to cling-to-your-ribs finish. Yes, I'm talking as far back as -- gasp -- the 1970s. Simply put, Michael Clayton may be the best film Alan J. Pakula never made.
Clooney, in a performance every molecule as riveting as his Oscar-winning turn in Syriana, is perfectly cast as the titular anti-hero, a corporate fixer at a crisis-of-conscience crossroads.
Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), one of the top litigators at his New York firm, has melted down in the high-stakes midst of a class-action lawsuit involving an agro-chemical giant which may have knowingly poisoned a few families. Clayton is tasked by the firm's chieftain (a terrific Sydney Pollack) to cap the spill and clean up the mess. For Clayton, already sapped by the toxicity of his own sin-drenched soul, the assignment turns from just another ruthless duty -- he describes himself as the office janitor -- to an overdue clash with his own moral fortitude.
Along the way debut director Tony Gilroy (screenwriter of the Bourne series) serves up the expected kicks -- mysterious deaths, whispered-about conspiracies, contract killers -- but does so in a way that refuses to pander to adrenaline junkies or, worse, rehash cliches.
(One murder, committed halfway through the story, is so understated, it will haunt you long after the final credits have rolled.)
Instead, he gives his actors meaty memorable dialogue to savour and welcome room to breathe.
The result?
Ace work from all involved -- Clooney, Pollack, Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton as a lawyer unnerved by her own capacity for cruelty.
(This film is rated 14-A)
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