http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/10/05/MICHAEL-CLAYTON-The-Supporting-Players-Shine.aspx MICHAEL CLAYTON is a morality play about a person ultimately driven to do the right thing – against his own better interests.  And it is a story about how venal corporate America and its lawyers can be.  But most of all, it is a suspenseful yarn that will get your pulse racing and hold you in its throes almost from the beginning until the end. Clayton (George Clooney) is an in-house fixer for an upper crust law firm.  If a client gets in trouble, his job is to clean up the mess, whatever it is.  But it wasn’t always that way.  Clayton, who comes from a family of cops, was a promising trial lawyer for the district attorney and a special crime task force before succumbing to the lure of private practice. One reason he switched careers: he had a gambling problem.  Supposedly he licked it, but now Clayton is in debt again because a restaurant he opened with his drug-addicted brother went down the tubes.  And the people he owes money to are the kind of people who will repossess your bones if payment isn’t prompt. We don’t know this in the beginning of course.  At the start, all we here is the voice of what appears to be someone discombobulated talking to Clayton, apologizing for running around naked in a parking lot.  Meanwhile, the camera is focused on a bunch of people working in a large conference room.  It’s the middle of the night and they’re finalizing a settlement of a major lawsuit.  Someone asks “where is Karen?”  And we see a woman in the restroom sweating through her blouse. The scene shifts to a gambling den in Chinatown where Clayton’s game is interrupted by a phone call.  A top client is in trouble; he was involved in a hit and run.  Clayton travels to the driver’s home in a ritzy and bucolic New York City suburb, where he is met with skepticism.  “I’m not a miracle worker,” Clayton explains. “I’m a janitor.” en-US Critics Rant info@criticsrant.com Subtext Version 1.9.4.0 http://www.criticsrant.com/images/default_gravatar_bullhorn.png http://www.criticsrant.com/archive/2007/10/05/MICHAEL-CLAYTON-The-Supporting-Players-Shine.aspx 77 60