Michael Clayton: Critic Reviews

When critics complain about the dumbing down of movies into franchise popcorn, what we're really doing is yearning for a terrifically engrossing, tethered-to-the-real-world drama like Michael Clayton.

Dark in color, mood and outraged worldview, Michael Clayton is a film that speaks to the way we live now.

A somewhat far-fetched, melodramatic ending restores some self-esteem to Clayton. But not before we have seen the weariness and anger chip away at that handsome face.

This is unequivocally a thriller for adults

This uncommonly intelligent thriller evokes the great films of the 1970s (All the President's Men, Klute, Three Days of the Condor) that managed to elicit gritty urban realism while maintaining a suave sense of style and moral complexity.

Clooney, for his part, allows his movie star looks to go flabby and soft (all things being relative, of course), and he buries the performance way down in his gut.

It will no doubt be said time and again of Michael Clayton: best John Grisham adaptation ever.

Every performance in this film is spot-on.

The pieces come together into a stirring portrait of a man reclaiming his soul from a scrap heap of discarded principles.

If Michael Clayton's particular mix of law and commerce gets a little murky, that murkiness also gives the film a shadowy aura.

Confident in the story's power and the moviegoers' intelligence, Gilroy uses only one explosion to own our rapt attention.

Clooney is as good as he has ever been.

Clooney looks a little worn, and the shagginess becomes him. He gives a beautiful, modulated performance, and he's never been more likable. Nor has he ever had better lines.

It is just about perfect as an exercise in the genre. I've seen it twice, and the second time, knowing everything that would happen, I found it just as fascinating because of how well it was all shown happening.

It's one of the most satisfying films of the year, recalling a classy breed of studio film more common in the 1970s and the early '80s.

This doesn't begin to deserve the Oscar nominations it's likely to get, but I had a good time with it nonetheless.

The filmmaker, best known as the scribe of the Bourne trilogy, wears both director and writer hats here, and the results are electrifying.

A throwback to trim, intelligent moral thrillers like The Verdict and Absence of Malice.

Smart and exciting, Michael Clayton takes the audience on a ride whose pleasures almost sneak up on you and are all the more satisfying because of it.

Michael Clayton literally knocks its brains out trying to be clever, but it ends up being the same kind of smart-alecky filmmaking most of Mr. Clooney's movies are famous for.

[A] lack of fireworks makes Michael Clayton refreshing in a sense, eschewing traditional white hats and black hats for more realistic shades of gray.

There are more than ample rewards for discerning adults: Some of the best dialogue in a recent movie and a gallery of unforgettable performances.

Stop printing the ballots. Don't waste money on those "for your consideration" Oscar ads. There is but one contender for best supporting actor this year, and it is Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton.

While the plot is complex in the telling, it unfolds onscreen with propulsive fascination.

Instead of the typical John Grisham-style connect-the-dots legal thriller, we get a film that's idiosyncratic, with a time-shifting structure, a surfeit of subplots and characters.