I am sitting in silence just trying to write about it still only minutes after seeing it. I had come to the conclusion that "No Country for Old Men" would have it but I can see now that "Michael Clayton" is a serious player in this years Oscars. It is a close race. But about the movie.
"Michael Clayton", as it says just about everywhere you look, is about a big law-firm's fixer who suddenly has to deal with a case that is so off the map that he has trouble dealing with it. But it is one of the most multifaceted I think that I have ever seen. Initially it is in the same line as "Citizen Kane" and "Network", a movie about corruption and how it prays on good people and why you have to get out of it before it is too late. But there are so many things that have to be seen looking at this movie that it is hard to fit it all just in your head.
Okay working from the most obvious. You see the body of the movie several times. There is the fixer story that is what the movie s about and what you see on the screen and it looks like almost all others do. But there is also this story about Michael Clayton and the trouble he has had running a restaurant and it goes under but really it seems to be the whole thing in some kind of miniature. There is also this underlying mythology to Tom Wilkinson's role which is absolutely crazy but really he is the only one who sees the case for what it really is until Michael Clayton gets it at by the end. Now I would like to talk about all that in full detail but first lets look at the skin of the movie.
On the outside, as I have said, this movie is like the other in the long line of these corporate corruption stories. This one is easily the best since "Network" if not of all time. This movie has allot of style to it. Nothing to win an award over but more than you see in allot of movies and I feel that that in part could ensure its win as Best Picture. It does not need to have the beauty that "Atonement" but it has it in just the right amount to make it all be very pleasing to the eye yet keeps you in the harsh real world the movie is talking about.
Now about the corporate corruption story. When watching the movie, "Network" and "Michael Clayton" the two have amazingly similar set ups and characters. But both are more for their time. In "Network" the crazy man gets blown up on TV for the ratings and then is killed over them. In this movie the crazy man has to be silent when he should be blown up on TV because he does need to bring down this corruption and he is quietly killed over that in this movie. The differences are with the movies of corse but also with the times. In the 70's "Network" showed us all the plastic that we are force fed and how it, as plastic, was bad. "Michael Clayton" now shows us what that plastic is covering up and why. Both movies speak very clearly to their now. And that is important cause that too could win the big prize for "Michael Clayton".
Now there is also the story about Michael Clayton and his restaurant. The restaurant is one thing that he has more control over than any other thing and it still goes under. This reflects the corporate drama, when something tries to come up it has to get put down. One thing eats another.
The last part is that of the crazy man getting shut down even when he sees things as they really are. And that comes out in an amazingly delivered monologue by Wilkinson, his nomination for Best Supporting Actor is not to be taken lightly, he stands out among supporting roles this year. This one also has a mythology about it. Because of the craze of the character it revolves around, the plot takes the chance to bring out dreams and childhood into the picture and into the real world.
These different points are something none of the other movies nominated have. Each and every other lacks that amount of folding and blending. "Juno" comes closest with its somewhat mythological characteristics. But the facets of this movie are far more deep and important, because they are not entirely by happenstance. This movie drives its points home in ways only seen in Victorian era writings like Great Expectations.
At the beginning of the movie we have a seemingly odd event occur. Michael Clayton sees three horses at the top of a hill and gets out of his car to see them. Then his car blows up. This scene is the turn as we find out after seeing the body of the movie and how these three plot lines all come together and how Michael Clayton sees them and everything else as it is, what this scene really represents is an enlightenment of sorts, and the horses represent the three stories. One is large and brown. One is small and brown. The last is small and white.
The large brown one represents what everyone sees this movie as, the corruption drama in corporate America. The small white one represents the crazy man and the mythology as the odd one of the three. But the most subtle is the small brown horse that is everything in miniature, the suppression of the crazy man and the corruption of the lives we lead. When you see this the first time it does not make sense at all, the horses only play a role as some kind of angels that save Michael Clayton from the exploding car, and they run off as soon as danger is gone. But when you see this you can have the rest of the movie dictated. You can better understand how to watch it. And that is a genius on par with Charles Dickens and the like and has not been matched like this for a very long time. And this goes through to the end which adds another fold to it all that without that the end could not happen the way it does. And not just for the physical meaning that he did not explode with his car. This movie is deep.
At this point can I say what will win, now only hours away from the big night? No. The other movies nominated this year are all very strong. And all very good each in some important and interesting way. But one thing I can say for this movie is that is does somethings that has never been done before and it has things that the other movies do not. Will that send "Michael Clayton" onto the big win is hard to say. What can be said is that this is an extraordinary movie in many respects and has my applause.