Michael Clayton is the Academy Award winning film, produced by Sydney Pollack, and directed by Tony Gilroy.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a lawyer for a large law firm in New York, and has become the law firm's problem solver, who can fix any of their rich and influential clients through contacts and other dubious methods. The film starts with Michael meeeting with a fellow lawyer key client who has hit someone with his car, and Michael is sent out into the country to make the problem go away. Michael is obviously at the point in his life where he has become uncomfortable with helping these clients avoid any legal problems, and does not make this 'clients' hit and run disappear, but rather just refer him to a local collegue, much to disdain of the client. Michael then heads back to the city, late at night, and stops by the side of the road, leaves his car to climbs a hill to admire some horses on the hill, the peaceful scene is abruptly changed when his car explodes at the bottom of the hill.

The story then jumps back four days earlier, where Michael is attemping to reorganise his finances to get $75000 he does not have to pay off some dubious backers of his failed bar that is now in deep financial trouble. He gets a call while in his negitiations (poker game), that his law firms leading lawyer has suffered a mental breakdown in a case that has been going on for 6 years, representing a large agricultural chemical supplier who is being sued in a class action suit. His friend Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) appears to have jumped off the deep end, but Michael rushes to his aid , but after getting Arthur released from a mental institution, he escapes back to New York. Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), U-North's chief counsel meets with Michael and convinces him that Arthur is a threat the multi-million dollar case, particulary as the law firm is in the process of being bought out by U-North.

Karen soon discovers that Arthur has some documents that could destroy the case if revealed that the documents are genuine, and released to the opposition. When Karen learns that she cannot commit Arthur and his documents cannot be supressed, she resorts to 'other' means and hires some other consultants who after bugging his house and phone that he is going to go public with these results, and building a case against U-North, so Arthur has to be dealt with, by faking his suicide.

Michael is distraught with his friends death, but when he investigates with the help of his brother who happens to be a cop, he soon discovers he is in danger, and this is where the story get interesting....

I won't spoil the movie by telling you anymore, but as you can tell from my brief summation of the start of the movie, this is quite an involved plot, and you need to be paying attention. Because as well as the main plot, there are at least three subplots involving the three main characters, which helps explain and give a great deal of depth to these complex people, but these sublots are subtle and in the background, so you only get pieces of their story thoughout the movie.

It is hard to convey without revealing too much how well crafted this excellent movie is put together. This is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, and I can see with this involved plot I am going to have to watch it again and again so I can gather all the stories.

Highly enjoyable.

As with most new movie releases the video is impeccable. With 16:9 Enhanced 2.35 Ratio widescreen video, I could not detect any flaws at all, and watching it upscaled to 1080i, the picture is crystal clear, sharp and a pleasure to watch. I think the distributors are finally egtting there act together as it has been a while with new release that I can any problems with picture quality.

Commentary Track.

There is a commentary track with Director Tony Gilroy and Editor John Gilroy. Quite detailed information relating to the production problems, artistic and other decisions, and why they were made. Quite a plethora of inside information, if you want to know the in and outs of a modern film production.

Deleted Scenes.

There are 3 deleted scenes, which you can watch with or without commentary from Director Tony Gilroy and Editor John Gilroy.

Total Runtime is 6 minutes 45 Seconds.

It has been a while since an intelligent thought provoking film about corporate greed and conspiracy and corruption, has been done so well. George Clooney is becoming one of my favorite actors and this is a significant belt in his buckle.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough, some more extras would be nice, but all I am after these days is a good story and this one is exceptional.