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==Release==
==Release==
===Theatrical===
===Theatrical===
The film premiered [[August 31]] [[2007]], at the [[Venice Film Festival]] and was shown at the American Films Festival of Deauville on [[September 2]], [[2007]], and at the [[Toronto International Film Festival]] on [[September 7]], [[2007]]. It opened in the [[United Kingdom]] on [[September 28]], [[2007]], and at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2007. The film opened in [[limited release]] in the [[United States]] on [[October 5]] [[2007]], and opened in wide release in the U.S. on October 12, 2007. The film grossed [[USD]] $55.5 million on the opening week. It was re-released on [[January 25]], [[2008]]. As of [[February 8]], [[2008]], the film has grossed $45 million domestically. The film in total grossed $92.6 million worldwide. <ref>[http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=michaelclayton.htm Michael Clayton (2007)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
The film premiered [[August 31]] [[2007]], at the [[Venice Film Festival]] and was shown at the American Films Festival of Deauville on [[September 2]], [[2007]], and at the [[Toronto International Film Festival]] on [[September 7]], [[2007]]. It opened in the [[United Kingdom]] on [[September 28]], [[2007]], and at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2007. The film opened in [[limited release]] in the [[United States]] on [[October 5]] [[2007]], and opened in wide release in the U.S. on October 12, 2007. The film grossed [[USD]] $10.3 million on the opening week. It was re-released on [[January 25]], [[2008]]. As of [[February 8]], [[2008]], the film has grossed $45 million domestically. The film in total grossed $92.6 million worldwide. <ref>[http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=michaelclayton.htm Michael Clayton (2007)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>


===Home media===
===Home media===

Revision as of 18:08, 5 January 2009

Michael Clayton
Promotional film poster
Directed byTony Gilroy
Written byTony Gilroy
Produced bySydney Pollack
Steve Samuels
Jennifer Fox
Kerry Orent
StarringGeorge Clooney
Tom Wilkinson
Tilda Swinton
Sydney Pollack
CinematographyRobert Elswit
Edited byJohn Gilroy
Music byJames Newton Howard
Distributed byWarner Bros. (USA)
Pathé (UK)
Release dates
October 5, 2007 (U.S.) September 28, 2007 (U.K.)
Running time
119 min.
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25,000,000
Box office$92,000,000

Michael Clayton is a 2007 American dramatic legal thriller film written and directed by Tony Gilroy and produced by Sydney Pollack. It stars George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack. It chronicles the attempts of attorney Michael Clayton to cope with a colleague's apparent mental breakdown and the corruption and murderous intrigue of a major client of his law firm that was sued in a class action case involving toxic agrichemicals.

Plot summary

The hill Clayton climbs to look at the horses.

The story opens as Michael Clayton (George Clooney), an attorney with a gambling problem, leaves a late night poker game. He works for the prestigious New York City law firm Kenner, Bach & Ledeen as a "fixer", someone who rectifies difficult situations, often through unconventional or expedient methods. Clayton is summoned to meet with an anxious client who believes he has struck a pedestrian with his car and left the scene. After Clayton leaves, he pulls off to the side of the road after some aimless driving. He climbs a hill to look at some horses, gazing at them when his car suddenly explodes.

The story flashes back to four days earlier, when Clayton received news that he owes $75,000 to organized crime figures represented by loan shark Gabe Zabel (Bill Raymond), due to a failed attempt to open a bar with his brother Timmy (David Lansbury). Then he is called with the news that one of the firm's leading attorneys, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), suffered a bizarre mental breakdown in the middle of a crucial deposition in Milwaukee involving a class action lawsuit against the firm's largest client, United Northfield (or U-North), an agricultural products conglomerate. Dispatched to fix the situation, Clayton gets Edens out of jail and learns that his friend, who is a manic-depressive, has stopped taking his medication. Clayton plans to take Edens back to New York for medical care, but he flees and reaches New York on his own.

Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), U-North's general counsel, retrieves Edens' briefcase and discovers that he obtained an internal U-North memorandum documenting the company's culpability for manufacturing a cancer-causing herbicide, the subject of the lawsuit. When Crowder learns that Edens refuses to cooperate and cannot easily be committed to a mental health institution, she decides to hire two operatives (Robert Prescott, Terry Serpico) to follow him, including tapping his phone and installing bugs in his apartment. This surveillance and the firm's review of documents in Edens' office reveals that he was building a case against U-North, his own client. Crowder instructs the two operatives to murder Edens; their methods fool the police into believing it was a suicide.

Clayton is distraught at Edens' death, but becomes suspicious when he accidentally learns both that U-North was planning to settle the lawsuit and that Edens had purchased a plane ticket to New York for one of the plaintiffs, Anna (Merritt Wever). With the passive assistance of his other brother (Sean Cullen), a NYPD police detective, Clayton breaks into Edens' sealed apartment and discovers a receipt for a large copy store order. At the store, he discovers that Edens had ordered one thousand copies of the memo incriminating U-North. Clayton takes a copy and leaves, but the two hit men are tailing him and, having secured their own copy of the memo, inform Crowder of the situation. Clayton is about to show his boss, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), what he has discovered, only to be confronted with an offer of a contract renewal and a requested bonus; Clayton holds the check in one hand and the memo copy in the other.

As Clayton plays poker that evening, returning to the film's proper opening, one of the hit men is seen rigging his car with a bomb. Clayton leaves the game earlier than expected when he is summoned to meet with the client who commited the hit-and-run, interrupting the hit man's re-installation of the vehicle tracking system, causing it to malfunction. Clayton drives to Westchester County to meet with the client who committed the hit-and-run. He is followed by the hit men, who have trouble tracking him. Knowing that he is nearby, but not his exact location, the hit men detonate the bomb. An unharmed Clayton runs back to his car and throws his personal effects into the fire. He later picks up a ride back to New York with his estranged brother Timmy.

Later, at a U-North board meeting, Crowder proposes that a new settlement agreement be approved. When she steps out of the conference room, Clayton is waiting for her. He tells her he has access to copies of the U-North memo and that he knows about her role in Edens' murder and the attempt on his own life. Admitting that he himself "sold out" Edens for personal gain, since that is the role he plays at the firm, he demands to be paid off personally by her for his continued silence, asking for $10 million. Crowder reluctantly agrees, to Clayton's utter disgust. He reveals the live cellphone in his pocket, and walks away as police officers approach arrest Crowder and U-North's chairman (Ken Howard); his brother, the NYPD detective, had been covertly listening to their entire conversation. Clayton leaves the building and gets into a taxi. He tells the driver, "Give me $50 worth. Just drive." After a few minutes his face reveals a hint of a smile and then the film cuts to credits on black.

Production

View from the top of the hill of locale where Clayton's car explodes

Locations

The railroad bridge where Clayton's car explodes is the Moodna Viaduct in Cornwall, New York, which is actually in Orange County, not Westchester. Washingtonville, where Clayton is said to have graduated from high school and where his father's birthday party takes place, is where writer and director Tony Gilroy himself attended high school.[1]

Release

Theatrical

The film premiered August 31 2007, at the Venice Film Festival and was shown at the American Films Festival of Deauville on September 2, 2007, and at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2007. It opened in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2007, and at the Dubai Film Festival in December 2007. The film opened in limited release in the United States on October 5 2007, and opened in wide release in the U.S. on October 12, 2007. The film grossed USD $10.3 million on the opening week. It was re-released on January 25, 2008. As of February 8, 2008, the film has grossed $45 million domestically. The film in total grossed $92.6 million worldwide. [2]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 19 2008. The DVD contains deleted scenes and a commentary by writer/director Tony Gilroy. On March 11, 2008 the movie was also released on HD DVD.

Reception

Critical reception

The film received strongly positive reviews from critics. As of November 2008, the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 90% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 183 reviews, some of whom thought it was a dramatization of a true story.[3] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 82 out of 100, based on 36 reviews.[4] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it an 'A' saying that it was "better than good, it just about restores your faith." Roger Ebert gave it a 4-star review and Richard Roeper named it the 'best film of the year.'[5] It was also Richard Schickel's top film of 2007, and he called it “a morally alert, persuasively realistic and increasingly suspenseful melodrama, impeccably acted and handsomely staged by Tony Gilroy". The reviews on Box Office Mojo give the movie a normal B.[6]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[7]

Awards

Wins
Nominations

Soundtrack

Untitled

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Michael Clayton was released on September 25 2007 on the Varèse Sarabande label.[10]

Awards

Although the album was panned by some critics, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Track listing

All tracks composed by James Newton Howard.

  1. "Main Titles" – 2:12
  2. "Chinatown" – 2:27
  3. "Drive to the Field" – 1:35
  4. "Just Another Day" – 2:20
  5. "Meeting Karen" – 2:46
  6. "Looking for Arthur" – 1:41
  7. "U North" – 1:49
  8. "Arthur & Henry" – 2:11
  9. "Times Square" – 3:38
  10. "Mr. Verne" – 2:28
  11. "I'm Not the Guy You Kill" – 6:57
  12. "Horses" – 2:13
  13. "25 Dollars Worth" – 6:27

References

  1. ^ Lussier, Germain (2007-10-12). "'Michael Clayton' starring George Clooney, Blooming Grove, Moodna Viaduct and a directorial debut by Washingtonville grad Tony Gilroy". Times-Herald Record. Retrieved 2008-03-16. Simultaneously, one of Gilroy's brothers was visiting their parents and it hit him. Tony suggested he take a few photos on his cell phone of the Moodna Viaduct in Salisbury Mills, a place he remembered as 'ethereal.' It was perfect. Exactly the spot he'd been looking for ... The plan was hatched to film Michael Clayton's home in the same area Gilroy had always seen in his head: Woorley Heights in Blooming Grove, a stop on Gilroy's old bus route where he used to ride bikes with friends. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Michael Clayton (2007)
  3. ^ "Michael Clayton - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  4. ^ "Michael Clayton (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  5. ^ "Michael Clayton - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-10-07.
  6. ^ Schickel, Richard; “The 10 Best Movies”; time.com
  7. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  8. ^ Roeper's review on Youtube
  9. ^ "Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2008 Golden Globe Awards for the Year Ended December 31, 2007". goldenglobes.org. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2007-12-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Allmusic: Michael Clayton (Original Score)". Macrovision Corporation. 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Michael Clayton.
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