Michael Clayton

[absoludicrous]

Saw it tonight, great movie.

[andyfox]

Saw this today, liked it a lot. Wilkinson was remarkable, surely a more memorable performance than Arkin's Oscar-winning performance of last year.

My wife brought up something I would have missed. She kept whispering to me that Clooney wasn't wearing a coat in the cold. Finally, in the last scene, he puts a coat on as he leaves the building. Because he could finally feel something?

My favorite scenes were when Wilkinson sees the ad for the corporation on the big screen in Times Square and when Clooney talks to his son in the car.

Terrific entertainment, thoughtful and intelligent, despite the "banality of evil" part that was indeed cliched. Well worth seeing.

[Exsubmariner]

Hi Dom,
I saw this movie tonight on your recommendation. I saw a lot in it, on many different levels.

Warning ******* Possible Spoilers beyond this point *******

What I watched was a couple of characters grappling with the age old problem of man vs. machine.

By machine, I mean the apparatus, the system, that has been set up to govern human interaction. Both the players, Clayton, and Edens (wonder about the symbology of that name?) are willful participants in all the injustice that a cold and calculated legal system can dish out. They've made careers of it. They thrive on it. Edens suffers some kind of mental break (well, we think it's a mental break, but I don't think it is) that gives him a vision of the world that he has not been able to see in some time.

You see, I think that both men have lost their humanity along the way. It was somewhere back in a calculated decision they made some time ago. Edens just rediscovers his and decides that regardless of the rules of the system and the mechanations of the machine, he is going to take an unpredictable human action and to hell with the consequences. To me, he is the most vivid character in the whole film.

Clayton, on the other hand must die, figuratively, to figure out what Edens truly saw. The opening sequence is literally the moment of Claytons death. All his paradigms are gone after that point. Boundaries shifted, expanded. The ending of the movie is his human action. That is, payback against the machine. The whole machine, even the part that nutured him into what he became. From that moment on, he will have to define himself by standards that the rest of the world doesn't understand.

I identify with Clayton. This has been a year where many of my paradigms have fallen away.

[andyfox]

"both men have lost their humanity along the way."

Absolutely. My wife caught this in the fact that Clooney never wore a coat in the cold weather. Not until the last scene when he leaves the building. It was the first time he could feel anything.

A lot of posts in this thread, and not one person who didn't care for the movie. Not that we're the be-all-end-all of movie mavens here, but significiant, I think, that we're unanimous in liking it.

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Dom,
I saw this movie tonight on your recommendation. I saw a lot in it, on many different levels.

Warning ******* Possible Spoilers beyond this point *******

What I watched was a couple of characters grappling with the age old problem of man vs. machine.

By machine, I mean the apparatus, the system, that has been set up to govern human interaction. Both the players, Clayton, and Edens (wonder about the symbology of that name?) are willful participants in all the injustice that a cold and calculated legal system can dish out. They've made careers of it. They thrive on it. Edens suffers some kind of mental break (well, we think it's a mental break, but I don't think it is) that gives him a vision of the world that he has not been able to see in some time.

You see, I think that both men have lost their humanity along the way. It was somewhere back in a calculated decision they made some time ago. Edens just rediscovers his and decides that regardless of the rules of the system and the mechanations of the machine, he is going to take an unpredictable human action and to hell with the consequences. To me, he is the most vivid character in the whole film.

Clayton, on the other hand must die, figuratively, to figure out what Edens truly saw. The opening sequence is literally the moment of Claytons death. All his paradigms are gone after that point. Boundaries shifted, expanded. The ending of the movie is his human action. That is, payback against the machine. The whole machine, even the part that nutured him into what he became. From that moment on, he will have to define himself by standards that the rest of the world doesn't understand.

I identify with Clayton. This has been a year where many of my paradigms have fallen away.

[/ QUOTE ]

nice take, Sub...

[Zeno]

Saw it today; First-rate movie with first-rate performaces. General comment - Funny how easy it is to compromise your life away until there is nothing left but a hollow and vain existence.

This is definitaly a movie that sticks with you long after you leave the theater - the true measure of a worthwhile film.

-Zeno