 Michael Clayton has garnered the strongest reviews of the season in the cities where it opened. Roger Ebert gave it a four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times, writing "It is just about perfect as an exercise in the [legal/business thriller] 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 not about the destination but the journey." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times wrote that writer-director Tony Gilroy hasn't really attempted to reinvent the legal thriller with Clayton. Rather, she said, "At its best and most ambitious, the film plays less like a variation on a Hollywood standard than a reappraisal. It's a modest reappraisal, adult, sincere, intelligent, absorbing; it entertains without shame." Noting that Clooney has appeared in films with the New York Post's highest ratings since 1999, the Post's Lou Lumenick noted that Clayton is no exception. The film, he said, offers "some of the best dialogue in a recent movie and a gallery of unforgettable performances." He added: "This is a movie that thrives not on cheap melodramatics but on ideas and a more deliberate pace than most contemporary mainstream movies." A handful of critics have registered their dissent. Jan Stuart in Newsday commented: "It's invigorating and impressive on a formal level, but ultimately wearying. Midway through, one wants to hand all the characters a Valium and tell them to take the rest of the day off." |
