Tony Gilroy moves from the writer of the BOURNE series to his first directing gig with this solid corporate thriller. With a fairly straight-forward visual style leaving the flare to the script structure, Gilroy is blessed with a cast filled with the likes of George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack. Each actor gives first-rate performances, driving this very believable tale of corporate greed and deception.
Clooney plays the title character, a fixer for a major law firm. He refers to himself as a janitor; the man who cleans up the dirty laundry of the firm's high paying clients. He is called in when, during a deposition in a billion dollar lawsuit, the firm's chief litigator Arthur Edens (Wilkinson, IN THE BEDROOM) strips down naked and professes his love for the young woman testifying in the 15-year-old contamination case. Chief legal advisor for uNorth, the company being sued in the class action suit, Karen Crowder (Swinton, DEEP END) is appalled when she sees the tape of Edens. When Clayton comes to her, he doesn't make her feel confident that the problem will be adequately taken care of, spurring her to take matters into her own hands.
Clayton is disgruntled with his job. His life is in shambles after a restaurant venture went belly up. Additionally, Edens is his friend and when the older man rambles about wasting his life defending a weed killer that killed more than 400 people, he sees his own face in the mirror of truth. Soon, the head of the firm Marty Bach (Pollack, EYE WIDE SHUT) discovers that Edens has been secretly building a case against uNorth on his own.
The story starts close to the end then after a startling event jumps back four weeks in time. We watch as Clayton dispassionately goes about doing his job. He wants to fix things quick and move on to the other pressing issues on his mind like paying back the shady people he owes money to. He has torn loyalties to his friend, who is off his meds yet morally right; his job; and his conscience. Once the film catches up with where it started, we're on a rollercoaster ride of corporate intrigue.
Clooney is good at playing world-weary characters. His Oscar winning turn in SYRIANA is just a grungier version of this slick high-stakes lawyer. Wilkinson is the fire of the film. He's losing it, but isn't wrong. It's a very interesting role, because it's smart about the character, what he does for a living and how a mental crisis is more honest than just a moral one. Pollack has made a career out of playing smart, powerful corporate leaders. He's played this same kind of role before, but he hasn't been better. He makes it look effortless. Swinton, with her pale skin and intense acting style, fits perfectly into her power suit adorned, conniving character. She is ruthless and meticulous in everything she does. She is the exact opposite of Wilkinson's character. Both her and Wilkinson deserve Oscar consideration for their work.
Outside of some pacing issues close to the end, the film works as a smart, intricately written thriller. The story plays out naturally without theatrics like other films in the genre such as THE FIRM. Gilroy has faith that his audience is intelligent and adult, never needing to spell everything out or pump up the action. As his work in the BOURNE series shows, he has a great knack at bringing realism to genre productions, which makes this film better than most.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
