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Michael Clayton(2007)
Warner Bros. Oct 5, 2007 | Wide
A law firm brings in its "fixer" to remedy the situation after a lawyer has a breakdown while representing a chemical company that he knows is guilty in a multibillion-dollar class action suit.
Releases
Original Release | Oct 5, 2007
Box Office
Results
$719,910
$49,033,882
$43,957,953
$92,991,835
Director & Top Cast
Technical Specifications
Sound Mix: SDDS,Dolby Digital,DTS
Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1
Other Details
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Summaries
Plot Summary
- Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a "fixer" from the prestigious New York City law firm, using his connections and his knowledge of legal loopholes for his clients' benefit. After leaving an underground poker game and dealing with a wealthy client's (Denis O'Hare) hit and run, Michael drives aimlessly and stops at a remote field. When he leaves his car to admire some horses, it explodes behind him.Four days earlier, one of the firm's leading attorneys, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), has a bizarre outburst in the middle of a deposition in Milwaukee involving a class action lawsuit against U-North, an agricultural products conglomerate. Michael arrives in Milwaukee and bails Arthur out of jail, but he escapes from their hotel room in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), U-North's general counsel, discovers that Arthur had come into possession of a confidential U-North document detailing the company's decision to manufacture a weed killer that it knew to be carcinogenic. She hires two men (Robert Prescott, Terry Serpico) to follow him and plant bugs in his apartment and phone. When they realize that Arthur is building a case against his own client, Karen asks that he be permanently incapacitated. They assassinate Arthur in a manner designed to resemble natural causes.Michael is saddened by the news of Arthur's death, but becomes suspicious upon learning that U-North was planning a settlement just a few days before and that Arthur had booked a flight for one of the plaintiffs, Anna (Merritt Wever). He learns from Anna that she told no one of her conversations with Arthur, not even her attorney, arousing in Michael further suspicion about how his firm came to know of Arthur's conversations with the U-North class members. With the help of his other brother Gene (Sean Cullen) in the police department Michael gets access to Arthur's sealed apartment and discovers a receipt from a copy store. Upon investigation, he discovers that Arthur had ordered three thousand copies of the confidential U-North document. Michael takes a copy with him, but the two hit men are tailing him and inform Karen of the situation. Michael is about to show his boss, Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack), what he has discovered, only to be offered a renewal of his employment contract as well as an $80,000 bonus he had requested to cover his debt, although it comes with a confidentiality agreement to prevent him from ever shaking down the firm.One of the hit men rigs his car with a bomb. Michael receives a phone call summoning him to the meeting with the client in Westchester County who had committed a hit-and-run, as seen at the start of the movie. He is being followed by the two men, but they have trouble tailing him. The surveillance team, still off but near Michael's trail, detonates the remote bomb while he is out of the car. An unharmed but surprised Michael runs back to his car and throws his personal effects inside, faking his own death.Later, at a U-North board meeting, Karen proposes approval of a new settlement agreement. Michael is waiting for her when she exits the conference, and informs her that he has access to copies of the U-North memo and that he knows about her role in Arthur's murder. He goads Karen into offering him $10 million for his silence. Karen reluctantly agrees, prompting Michael to reveal the phone in his pocket that has conveyed their conversation to the police. As he walks away, Karen falls to her knees in shock while detectives rush forward to arrest her. Michael leaves the building and hails a cab, he passes the driver 50 dollars and tells him to "just drive."
Storyline
- Michael Clayton, a high-priced law firm's fixer, leaves a late night poker game, gets a call to drive to Westchester, and watches his car blow up as he's taking an impromptu dawn walk through a field. Flash back four days. He owes a loan shark to cover his brother's debts (Michael's own gambling habits have left him virtually broke). His law firm is negotiating a high-stakes merger, and his firm's six year defense of a conglomerate's pesticide use is at risk when one of the firm's top litigators goes off his meds and puts the case in jeopardy. While Michael is trying to fix things someone decides to kill him. Who? Meanwhile his son summarizes the plot of a dark fantasy novel. — <jhailey@hotmail.com> Michael Clayton is Mr. Fix-It for his law firm, Kenner, Back and Ledeen. A former District Attorney, Clayton uses his contacts in the police and the criminal justice system to bail out the firm's wealthy corporate clients. When one of the firm's senior partners, Arthur Edens, has a nervous breakdown while taking a deposition in a lawsuit against a major agrochemicals company, Clayton is dispatched to bring him home. What Clayton soon learns is Edens not only has doubts about defending the lawsuit but that the company may be acting on its own to ensure a positive outcome. — garykmcd Forty-five year old divorced father Michael Clayton, formerly a respected litigator, has long been the "fixer" for New York law firm Kenner, Bach, and Ledeen. Likening his work to that of a janitor, he cleans up the messes of the firm's clients as well as that of the firm itself. He knows that he cannot do this job forever, especially as he is getting burnt out and as the firm is going through a merger, he not having an official job title describing what he does to the other firm. As a fall-back, he had gone through the process to open a bar with his brother Timmy, but is now $80,000 in debt to a loan shark as Timmy, a drug addict who has since gone into hiding, used their money to fuel his drug habit. Despite being the best at his job, Michael seems unable to fix his own personal problem. The latest issue he faces at work concerns Arthur Edens, the senior and best litigator in the firm. A manic-depressive whose condition is largely managed by medication, Arthur has been working solely on a case for U-North, an agro-conglomerate, for the past six years. It is a $3 billion class action lawsuit against U-North. Arthur largely works with Karen Crowder, U-North's general counsel, she a woman who highly controls what others see of her. The issue is that Arthur, off his meds and in a manic state, starts to strip naked while in a deposition meeting in Milwaukee. Beyond needing to fix the problem that Arthur has created, Michael has to figure out if his rantings were that of a madman, or if there was some other end to which Arthur is working. In his dealings with Arthur, with the highers up at the firm, and indirectly with U-North and Karen, Michael may come to some understandings about what is fully going-on, but not without some further risk to his own livelihood as well as his life. — Huggo As the catastrophic psychological meltdown of his brilliant veteran lawyer mentor imperils a crucial case of one of New York City's leading corporate law firms, world-weary legal fixer Michael Clayton has his work cut out for him. And with dangerous loan sharks breathing down his neck and the chemically imbalanced executive posing a threat to the company and himself, Clayton must put his impressive skill set to good use to clean up the mess and get the case back on track. However, when a key player threatens to bring to light incriminating evidence, Clayton will have to confront a gloomy conscience crisis. Is Michael Clayton prepared for a rude awakening? — Nick Riganas 1 more All
