Michael Clayton

[andyfox]

It's a line from The Madness of King George.

And I don't care about the flat moders, flat mode sucks. Read in non-flat mode and it's hard to get lost.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
And I don't care about the flat moders, flat mode sucks. Read in non-flat mode and it's hard to get lost.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry Andy. I mistook you as being part of that mid/high limit crowd that participated in a year or so old thread that seemed to imply anyone using threaded mode (instead of flat) as being some sort of not cool dope.

I used to use threaded when the forum was smaller and the texture of the threading was respected. These days I surf in flat and try to connect with partial quoting when I post.

~ Rick

[andyfox]

I am a not cool dope. I've always hated the quoting feature. When I want to quote I just copy the part I want to quote and put quotation marks around it. I see those quoted posts with forty-two quotes within quotes within quotes and I quickly move on. But I'm definitely a techno-peasant. Not quite the Luddite your friend is, but close.

I really said a terrible thing to him the other day. He was kvelling about his son and said to me, "Look my name is in the paper three times in one article." I replied, "Is it the obituary section?" Funny line, I thought, but mean-spirited. Please apologize for me.

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And I don't care about the flat moders, flat mode sucks. Read in non-flat mode and it's hard to get lost.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry Andy. I mistook you as being part of that mid/high limit crowd that participated in a year or so old thread that seemed to imply anyone using threaded mode (instead of flat) as being some sort of not cool dope.

I used to use threaded when the forum was smaller and the texture of the threading was respected. These days I surf in flat and try to connect with partial quoting when I post.

~ Rick

[/ QUOTE ]

I do the same thing...

[Rick Nebiolo]

Andy - Minutes after I opened this post a few hours ago my friend came over. Before our exercise walk/jacuzzi/cigar (good combo BTW) I told him there was an online apology to him and he made five wrong guesses (two were evil demons that have been the subject of previous discussions here on 2+2) . Since these were Commerce players I finally said "Your getting close.". Then in a puzzled tone he replies "Andy Fox" (only because he connects you with Commerce, me, and the Internet) and I go "yeah". He couldn't come up with any offense and hardly even noticed the aforementioned incident.

~ Rick

PS I did go to his son's high school water polo match yesterday. Both teams were undefeated and son's team won in a water romp. Friend did no kvelling since his son went scoreless. Special surreal experience for me since it was the first time on a high school campus in 35 years. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[andyfox]

Just PMed you.

[toutatis70]

I went to movies with a friend. Picked Clayton movie and was pleasantly suprised. Liked the manic depressive lawyer scenes.

[Taso]

I just got back from it and thought it was very good. Definitly see a few oscar nods coming out of it.

Question with spoiler in white:

<font color="white"> Still unsure of how he knew exactly who was behind the murder/attempted. How did he know it was that women, it could have been a number of people. What did I miss? </font>

[maltaille]

I'll be the dissenting voice (of reason!) then: I liked it, it kept me engaged start to finish, appreciated the film-making a lot, but it didn't blow me away. Not much of a dissent, I know, but there you go.

*****Spoilers*****


I avoided this thread until I could see the movie, but several people have said it was great, so perhaps this was just the weight of expectations. Still, lots of little points kept me from sinking into the movie throughout the film. I got a sense that lots of stuff was left on the cutting room floor. Why the work on the relationship with the guy collecting the money he owed for the restaurant (both the photo in the early scene, and the comment about "just doing his job" in the late scene)? Why is it suddenly fine that people know Michael Clayton was killed, after all the effort to make Eden's death seem like suicide or an accident? For that matter, why the hell did Clayton stop there in the first place? Was that supposed to be a moment of epiphany? Sorry, not that convincing.

That said, Tilda Swinton was fantastic. Easily the best supporting role I've seen lately. Especially like the way they made her character sympathetic (such as the speech practice scenes, and shooting her in positions that emphasised her thickening waist and the way her bra cut into her back). The penultimate scene, where she's almost stuttering she's so overwhelmed, was incredible. It wasn't so much the banality of evil, for me, more that she was a frail person (remember the interview she gave early on, where she talked about feeling overwhelmed by the job when she first took it?), desperate to succeed, but without quite having the smarts or willpower necessary. Made her completely credible, in my eyes.

Also liked that Clooney spent the entire movie looking tired until the last scene, when he's suddenly clean-shaven and without the eye makeup again: it was clear it wasn't the late nights that were tiring him out, but the burden of guilt. Kind of gave away the reverse in that scene, but I'm a sucker for even moderately subtle visual indications of moral choices, so I'm willing to forgive. Thought he did a good job, but I have to judge him beside Tilda Swinton, and in that light it was only good, not great.

Have to diverge from the consensus on Tom Wilkinson as well - thought he did a fine job, especially the alley scene and the prison scene, but he also paled beside Swinton.

Music was good too, lots of cello, which usually works for me. Cinematography was appropriate, never flashy and mostly aiding the grey tone.

I think the problem was that every scene that didn't include Swinton left me thinking "yup, got that, on to the next scene now."

So, I liked it, it was ok, but I suspect I would have preferred it as a book.

[andyfox]

"why the hell did Clayton stop there in the first place? Was that supposed to be a moment of epiphany?"

The horses reminded him of the picture from his son's book.

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