Michael Clayton: No frills movie relies on characters, dialogue

It is not too often that a quiet movie blows me away, but Michael Clayton did just that.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney in a perfect role) is an in-house fixer, an upscale Erin Brockovich, covering up nasty scandals for the clients of a major New York corporate law firm. Clayton, a damaged but loyal employee, is good at his job of cleaning up messy situations. "The smaller the mess, the easier it is to clean up," he says. "I am just a janitor, not a miracle worker." His street skills and his cop contacts have made him invaluable and untouchable. He is a walking reminder of all the nasty little secrets of the firm's clients, which is why he has a corner office but no partnership.

His latest assignment is a big mess: get his respected friend and colleague, Arthur Edens (played masterfully as usual by Tom Wilkinson), who has just had a major meltdown that could cost the firm a fortune, under control. Edens has been representing an agrochemical firm, U/North, in a class-action suit involving a harmful weedkiller.

Threatening the pending settlement of this suit, Edens strips naked during a deposition, claiming a sense of clarity by the realization that he has spent 12 percent of his life "defending the reputation of a deadly weedkiller."

U/North's chief legal counsel, Karen Crowder (played electrifyingly brittle by Tilda Swinton) is almost poisoned with fear. One moment she is handling a video conference, the next she is vomiting in agony in the ladies room, then she is obsessively laying out her clothes for the next day, practicing her lines in the mirror. She shows years of swallowed disappointment, yet can tersely discuss a wet job with two hit men -- U/North's own fixers.

A study in conflicted behavior, Clayton would like to quit but he is a gambler, both at the poker table against people with deeper pockets than his, and in the restaurant business, where he spent all his savings on a failed trendy eatery. He begs a loan from his boss, Marty Bach (played compellingly by Sydney Pollack) even though both men know that it is close to blackmail. Clayton's son Henry adds a touch of humanity to the exhausted character, hopefully giving him the impetus to rearrange his life before it is too late.

In "Michael Clayton," words are weapons, and the movie's taut dialogue exchanges are more thrilling than most car chases.

This is not a big Hollywood blockbuster thriller, but the film's elegance and honesty blows the rest of them away.