Movie Review: Michael Clayton.

When an attorney friend learned that I saw Michael Clayton he asked if it was another lawyer-bashing movie. I laughed because it is and it isn't. In short, it's like a lawyer's answer where both "yes" and "no" may credibly pass for truth.

On the one hand, an attorney (Tom Wilkinson's character) is presented as a hero protecting injured victims of corporate greed. He uncovers a damaging research memo and toils to help plaintiffs win with it.

On the other hand, the same attorney obliterates conventional attorney ethics because he was the lead counsel for the defendant corporation. Also, he was a paranoid schizophrenic who "came to his senses" only after he came off his meds. This attorney, considered a courtroom wizard, equates attorneys (primarily himself) with "janitors" who clean up after others.

George Clooney plays another attorney struggling with his own ethics and motivations in this ethical morass. Clooney's character, Michael Clayton, works in the same law firm as Wilkinson's character. Clooney is known as the firm's "fixer," who is directed to control the damage (to the firm mostly) wrecked by Wilkinson's "epiphany." Instead of fixing others, Clooney's character fixes his own ethics in the process.

As the characters work out this morality play, the viewer is treated with respect. Michael Clayton unfurls a nonlinear story with many ambiguities and serious themes. As someone else said about the film, "Hire a babysitter, it's adult time at the cinema again."

Those born before the 80s can be thankful for that.

Michael Clayton receives an A-.

Movie Review: Ocean's Thirteen.

If slickness were a virtue, Ocean's Thirteen should be nominated for sainthood.

The clothes were slick; the dialogue was slick; the music was slick; the cinematography was slick; the setting was slick; the acting was slick; the story was slick; and the direction was slick.

Get the picture? It was slick.

But was there any substance to go along with that style? There was, but it lurked underneath all this slick veneer.

Basically, this is a revenge film. Most would not characterize revenge as virtuous. The motive was perhaps virtuous, however. A group of friends, the balance of Ocean's Thirteen, exhibited extreme loyalty to their friend (Eliott Gould's character, Reuben Tishkoff), who was cheated by Al Pacino's character, Willie Bank (slick name huh?). They set out to make it right.

At considerable cost and effort, they put together an elaborate scheme to extricate bank from Willie Bank. It was so intricate, and involved so many moving parts, that its execution was quite unbelievable. Nevertheless, it was a slick plan.

On par with Ocean's Eleven, and vastly superior to Ocean's Twelve, this movie will entertain those who liked either of the previous iterations.

Rated PG-13, this movie was surprisingly clean, and hardly earned even a -13 designation. Of course, it would be difficult to market a movie with 13 in the title without a -13 in the rating.

Ocean's Thirteen receives a B+.