#MotionPicture – Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton is a 2007 American legal thriller film written and directed by Tony Gilroy in his feature directorial debut and starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. Clooney plays lawyer Michael Clayton, who discovers a coverup over the effects of toxic agrochemicals.

Released on October 5, 2007, the film grossed $93 million worldwide. It was praised for its direction, performances, and screenplay; Swinton’s performance was particularly lauded. Michael Clayton was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Clooney, Best Supporting Actor for Wilkinson, and Best Supporting Actress for Swinton, which she won.

Principal photography took place from January 30 to April 7, 2006. The film premiered on August 31, 2007, at the Venice Film Festival. It was shown at the American Films Festival of Deauville on September 2, 2007, and at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7. It opened in the United Kingdom on September 28, and at the Dubai Film Festival in December. It opened in limited release in the United States on October 5, 2007, and in wide release in the US on October 12. It grossed $10.3 million in the opening week. It was rereleased on January 25, 2008. It has grossed $49 million in North America and $92.9 million worldwide.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 205 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Michael Clayton is one of the most sharply scripted films of 2007, with an engrossing premise and faultless acting. Director Tony Gilroy succeeds not only in capturing the audience’s attention, but holding it until the credits roll.” Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 36 critics indicating “universal acclaim”. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B on an A+ to F scale.

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A, saying that it was “better than good, it just about restores your faith”. Roger Ebert gave it a full four stars and Richard Roeper named it the best film of the year. It was also Richard Schickel’s top film of 2007, and he called it “a morally alert, persuasively realistic and increasingly suspenseful melodrama, impeccably acted and handsomely staged by Tony Gilroy”.

Time wrote, “Michael Clayton is not an exercise in high-tension energy; you’ll never confuse its eponymous protagonist with Jason Bourne. But it does have enough of a melodramatic pulse to keep you engaged in its story and, better than that, it is full of plausible characters who are capable of surprising—and surpassing—your expectations”. Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote that “Gilroy’s film is distinguished beyond its components by its purpose, its compassion, its interest—increasingly manifest—in the soul”.

Michael Clayton appeared on many critics’ top ten lists of the best films of 2007.