A big law firm has among its clients a huge chemical industry which is producing a carcinogenic defoliant. One of the lawyers assigned to defend said industry finds out about it; add to it that he has fallen in love with one of the plaintiffs' daughter, and his own mood disorders, and you have a recipe for disaster. He goes rogue, and the law firm sends one of their trouble-fixing lawyers over in order to bring him back to his senses.
Lately every time a screenwriter makes his directing debut it is safe to expect an overwritten film, one that some critics deprecatingly call a "writer's movie". Michael Clayton is exactly that, but this wouldn't be such a big problem were it not just a pile of unhealthy clichés. A corporate lawyer which all of a sudden changes sides and becomes a public-health militant is not a plausible character, not even if said lawyer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, because nervous breakdowns generally render individuals a little more dysfunctional than that; assassins who take orders from middle-rank executives in a sidewalk rendezvous -- when will people wake up to the fact that this is ridiculous? The film doesn't come up with anything politically relevant; its plot is founded on a fictitious company and a fictitious chemical, so I guess as an exposé its scope is confined to the obvious: big corporations are only concerned about their profits (duh); law firms are not concerned about ethics (double duh); and on and on. Bottom line: what is the film's point? I don't know, honestly. Taking a wild guess, I would say it's implying that sometimes a stop to gaze at the horses can save your life... Anyway, I will grant it some points for occasionally interesting dialogue and acting profficiency.
Rating: 38
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