Michael Clayton

I’m late reporting on George Clooney’s Michael Clayton because it hasn’t been easy to work out what to say, beyond the banal “one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long, long time”. The script plays with time beautifully, with the flashback -- four days earlier -- spooling quietly on so that things that made no sense in the beginning calmly fall into focus. The acting is magnificent, Sydney Pollack and Tilda Swinton especially so. Swinton’s fear and ambition -- especially at the denouement -- are astonishing. But it is Clooney who really shines. I’ve been thinking hard to recall an actor who can do “thinking” so well. You know he’s thinking, but you really have no idea what exactly it is that he is thinking. Uncanny. Nevertheless, I’m undecided as to whether I watched a major Oscar contender or a sleeper that may end up a (cult) classic. The critics seem to have loved it, and yet ...

My rating: 4 out of 5