The film begins with Tom Wilkinson's passionate and even crazy narration (or lines without corresponding pictures). Tilda Swinton plays the general counsel Kerry Crowder curled up in the bathroom in pain. The narrative structure of flashbacks undoubtedly gives the audience more questions to guide the subsequent plot. But for audiences in non-English speaking countries, I am afraid that it is more of a confusion. It wasn't until the car bomb of Mike Clayton played by George Clooney detonated that the footage began to return to the beginning of everything 4 days ago.
Mike Clayton was a failed lawyer, not even a lawyer. He was employed by a large law firm---Kennebach and Reading as a special consultant. Proper means to help the boss cope with all kinds of unexpected emergencies for customers. He is divorced and his son is not with him either. Invested in a small bar, but the debt was high. He is busy working for his livelihood all day long, but his brother who is addicted to drugs always causes trouble for him. Recently, his best friend Arthur has been the most troublesome for him.
Mike's friend Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) is the ace lawyer of the same law firm. For 6 years, he has represented the firm and the agricultural goods giant Unorth to defend the case that Unorth's products were accused of being poisonous. Just a few days ago, he caused a scandal because of his naked body at a hearing.
Kerry Crowder is Unorth's general counsel. She was introduced to the company by the current chairman Dan 12 years ago. She has been working diligently and finally has the position she is today. What caused her headache was that the chief attorney of Kennerbach and Reading, who had been working with Unorth, who was also the lawyer who had been dealing with the toxic case of Unorth products, broke out the big scandal of naked body.
The clues of the three plots are constantly intertwined with Mike Clayton as the media. McClayton tried to persuade Arthur, hoping that he could continue to return to the "normal track", but Arthur turned a deaf ear to his defection, and he was ready to stand on the plaintiff to expose Unorth's inside story. Of course, Kerry Crowder is not a vegetarian. After discovering Unorth's secret, she immediately began to use the chairman Dan's instruction to monitor Arthur. After discovering that Arthur had the evidence, she had to instruct the killer to kill her. Arthur was killed. McClayton met Anna, the plaintiff's representative whom Arthur had been secretly contacting. Carey Crowder thought that Mike was also involved in Arthur's rebellion plan, so he ordered the killer to place a car bomb in Mike's car.
Mike Clayton managed to escape, so he found Arthur's evidence, threatened Carrey Crowder with it, and recorded the recording. The truth finally became known to the world.
The rapidly intersecting plot clues and meticulous and rather complicated lines make it difficult for you to understand the deep meaning behind the movie at once. But fortunately, it is a closed ending after all. The movie poster seems to be able to give a hint "The truth can be adjusted" (the truth can be adjusted).
When Kerry Crowder prepared two briefing sessions (once facing reporters and once facing the board of directors), the director used two wonderful montages. Actor Tilda Swinton kept switching between the scenes of preparing in plain clothes and reporting in a suit, and only carefully worded lines became the connecting point of the switching. Fully shows the pain, contradiction, and cautiousness of Kerry's role.
The performance of the actors may be a highlight of this film. Tom Wilkinson's language is full of passion and his performance is full of tension. He and Clooney both acted passionately in the two opposing scenes. He and George Clooney won Oscar nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for this film. Tilda Swinton also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this film.
The details set by the director in the film are commendable. There is a dark thread in the movie, the little red book "Realm and conquest" by Mike Clayton’s son Henry. He and Arthur mentioned a chapter in the book on the phone: "A group of people, they don’t know why When they came to the same place, they had the same dream, but they didn't know each other." The name of this chapter is "Summons to conquest" (Summons to conquest). Later, the Unorth materials that Arthur compiled were printed with Summons to conquest.
Finally, talk about the subtitles of the movie. There is no doubt that such a film full of professional background and complex clues, for a non-English speaking audience, to fully understand, a good subtitle is indispensable. The subtitles of Tattered Bear, Garden of Eden, and Fengruan are not satisfactory. But for such a movie, it is undoubtedly very difficult to translate the soul of the lines in the movie in combination with the life background. In any case, we should be infinitely grateful to the creators who have contributed subtitles.
View more about Michael Clayton reviews
