MICHAEL CLAYTON

(Warner Brothers)
Runtime: 119 Min

Roughly said, this is the show about the battle of the janitors, one is evil with an ounce of conscience and the other one is deadly evil with no conscience. Or people can say, George Clooney show, minus Danny Ocean self confidence plus the ruthless rhetoric and Syriana-like of conspiracy. This directorial debut of screenwriter Tony Gilroy (responsible for Jason Bourne trilogy), is an intelligent thriller that moves slowly but sure and gives us a screaming intellectual orgasm in the end. The dense narrative and smart lines gives the audience no place to stop by to ponder and may cause confusion. If you have seen The Insider (1999) you might recognize the elements; people in the grey areas, corporate vs the people, difficult plot to digest and the quintessential question of all: does money means everything in life?

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a special kind of lawyer, an in-house "fixer" at the law firm of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen - a man who defines himself as a janitor instead of a miracle worker. Life has been unkind with Michael, apart from his Esquire magazine front cover looks and a sleek S-Class Mercedes, he hates his job, has an unsettled gambling debt and a strained relationship with his son. Not to mention his friend and co-janitor, Arthur (Tom Wilkinson), has gone “lunatic”. Arthur decided to switch sides, trying to uncover U/North conspiracy to in a class action law suit.

U/north is Kenner, Bach & Ledeen's biggest clients and Michael was ordered by the firm’s Don, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), to clean the “mess” or they will lose millions of dollar of legal fees. Then enter the other janitor, the witch of U/Narnia, erm… U/north, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) who is willing to strech the real meaning of blunting the damages Arthur may cause at all costs.

This is a film about characters that inhabit the gray area between morality and immorality, where everyone has a different definition of what constitutes ethics. Just like in real life, the three dimensional characters are the end products of “the end justify its means” culture. As the only film which nominated in more than one acting category in this year Academy Awards, this one is worth your time.

I wonder why I haven’t seen such a slick and smart thriller from Indonesian movies. Aren’t the audiences getting sick of a wafer thin happy ending plot from another wafer thin horror-teen love flicks? I’d love to write such stuff, but I need time to learn screenwriting.