The first ten minutes or so of "Michael Clayton" are somewhat confusing. It begins with random shots of rooms inside a corporate law firm, while we hear a voiceover recording of what seems like a raving maniac spouting incoherent thoughts onto an answering machine.


This seeming maniac is Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), a star lawyer for the firm, who seems to be on the verge of a complete mental breakdown; he is trying to contact Michael Clayton (George Clooney). Clayton is what is known as a fixer - not quite a lawyer, but rather a person who conveniently glosses over and even erases unsavory details that may reflect badly on the firm for which he works. Clayton has problems of his own. He is a part-time gambler, divorced and with a young son, brother to another man who may or may not be a drug user, and deeply in debt.


As we first see him he is asked to take on the case of a man who inadvertently ran over and killed another person. After talking with his client, he drives off, and, for what seems to be no apparent reason, ends up in a pasture where he steps out of his car. Perhaps simply to relax (we at first don't know quite why), Clayton gets out of the car to admire some beautiful horses grazing in the nearby pasture. A mere few minutes after he leaves the car, it explodes.


The scene flashes back to four days earlier. As the law firm is discussing a class action lawsuit which they are handling, and which involves chemical giant U-North they receive an urgent call. Arthur Edens has shown signs of complete mental instability by stripping completely naked during the deposition for the lawsuit, and this episode has been captured on video. With settlement of the lawsuit and millions of dollars at stake, Clayton is dispatched to find Edens (his good friend) and reign him in before the entire case is sabotaged. When Clayton does, he discovers that Edens, a manic-depressive, has not been taking his medication. From there, the story develops into something more and more sinister, as strong indications arise that Edens may have deliberately sabotaged the chances of U-North (and by extension, the law firm) winning any sort of victory. U-North's chief counsel, Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton, whom some of you may recognize as the Witch in "The Chronicles of Narnia"), steps in to handle matters, and after a none too sympathetic first meeting with Michael Clayton, begins to take drastic and vicious steps to keep things under control. Crowder is the sort of woman who is not above using any means to get what she wants, and she has her own group of henchmen available to carry out her wishes.


Meanwhile, Edens seems like a loose cannon on the surface, but much of what he says seems to begin to make sense to Clayton, whose conscience is being pricked by the fact that most of the time, he has "cleaned up" situations like this, and has not previously shown much concern for ethics in any situation concerning lawyers.


"Michael Clayton" has a convoluted, involved storyline, and to reveal any more details would spoil it. Although some viewers have remarked online that it begins slowly, I never found it slow at all, although the beginning is quite disorienting. At first, we are not sure of what is s happening; we have Edens raving half-coherently on the one hand, on the other we see corporate meetings, interviews, and talk of a merger, and on still another front we see that Michael Clayton obviously is used to juggling several cases at once. However, once the story does kick in, it is relentless, and there are few fancy cinematic tricks to disturb its development. You will, though, have to pay attention. There are plot complications that I have not mentioned, and it is easy to miss these tiny details if the audience is not fully concentrated on the story.


George Clooney has struck gold again, proving once more that of all the television actors who have made the jump to film, he is by far the best at choosing his projects. The supporting cast is also fine, especially Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton in what may be Oscar-nominated performances. Director Sydney Pollack ("Tootsie", "The Way We Were", etc.), as an unscrupulous lawyer who has long ago learned what is expected of him, is also effective, proving again that he is equally good an actor as a director.


The only drawback to the film is the section dealing with Michael Clayton's personal life; we discover that he owes money, but we do not always get a clear understanding of precisely what has gotten him into such a financial bind.

However, this should not keep anyone from seeing this motion picture. It is one of the best films of the year, and it is a sad reflection on our culture that the special effects extravaganzas, horror films, and the notorious "torture-porn" movies have all raked in the cash faster than "Michael Clayton". "Michael Clayton" has thus far shown a profit, but not by much, and it deserves to be seen. It was written and directed by Tony Gilroy, and George Clooney was, of course, one of the executive producers. (How else to explain the fact that such a believably unsettling film about lawyers, with no shootups or car chases, got made?)