[maltaille]

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I think is to both show Clayton's attempt at being respectable (owning a restaurant) while failing at it (getting the money to open it from a loanshark). I really liked how it dramatized that dichotomous nature he was struggling with.

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Not the restaurant itself, that whole subplot worked well at presaging his mid-life crisis. There were a couple of cues that he had a larger relationship with the man collecting the money for his loan shark though - the line "just doing my job" in their last scene, indicating Clayton's opinion of him mattered to the collector, and, more ambiguously, a quick shot just after their first scene together where Clayton, in his apartment or office, reached down to pick up a phone in front of a picture of what I thought at the time was his son and the collector sitting together. Later, when we met his father, who looked very similar to the collector, I thought it must have actually been a photo of his father and his son, but the timing was deliberate, and the 1-second long shot was both completely unnecessary to the scene, and clearly emphasised the picture.

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Eden was lead counsel for the plaintiffs, and thus a unnatural death would bring some suspicion onto the defendants. Clayton had nothing to do with it the case (at least in the eyes of the law), so it wouldn't matter if he was murdered or not.

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Clayton had met with Swinton's character two days or so before, and was known to be working on the case by people in his firm (who weren't in on the hit, and as far as Swinton knew would be pissed she killed him). He'd also been interacting with the police over another death the previous day, and had a brother who was a cop (as Swinton knew). Seems more than enough to cause suspicion to me.

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He stopped his car because the scene reminded him of the horse on the cover of his son's book - and the one Eden had in his apartment.

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Yeah, and he drove there as fast as he could, taking at high speed a turnoff from the main road that was so small the car following him didn't see it. I appreciate the connection to the illustration in the book, but it didn't make it a credible action for him to take, for me, especially given it's fortuitous timing, and the tightness of the rest of the movie. The only thing that makes it vaguely viable for me is the clear allusion to getting off the track he's on being the only thing that will save his life.

Like I said, none of them are big things, and certainly none ruin the movie, but there were enough of them, and they contrasted enough with parts that did the same things very well, that they jarred a little.

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If you enjoy Swinton, try The Deep End. Wonderful performance.

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This was the beginning of my love affair with Tilda. Looking forward to her both as Lady MacBeth and in the Coen brothers next film.