Michael ClaytonMovie Reviews

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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 82 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 Iffy for 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    It's a rare film that can challenge our minds and rattle our nerves so profoundly. This is unequivocally a thriller for adults. A deftly written, tautly suspenseful and intellectually demanding morality tale. Read full review

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    It's better than good; it's such a crackling and mature and accomplished movie that it just about restores your faith. Read full review

  • 100
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    I don't know what vast significance Michael Clayton has (it involves deadly pollution but isn't a message movie). But I know it is just about perfect as an exercise in the genre. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    This uncommonly intelligent thriller evokes the great films of the 1970s ("All the President's Men," "Klute," "Three Days of the Condor") that managed to elicit gritty urban realism while maintaining a suave sense of style and moral complexity. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Deliberate, demanding and character-driven, Michael Clayton flies in the face of what sells at the multiplex. I couldn't have liked it more. Read full review

  • 80
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    As with the Bourne films, Gilroy has a knack for creating strong characters and situations that resonate with tension. It may be formula, but the guy is a solid chemist as he crafts excellent set-ups and payoffs. Read full review

  • 80
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    Mr. Gilroy hasn't reinvented the legal thriller here, but I doubt that was his intention; at its best and most ambitious, the film plays less like a variation on a Hollywood standard than a reappraisal. It's a modest reappraisal, adult, sincere, intelligent, absorbing; it entertains without shame. Read full review

  • 80
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    A smart and suspenseful legal thriller that comes completely alive on-screen. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Has a slow build and a strong payoff, but George Clooney is the element that holds it together. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Brian Lowry

    Features strong performances and a solid story, drawn from the familiar well of faceless corporations grinding ordinary people through their profit-making machinery. Yet Gilroy's fidelity to his script comes at the expense of the pacing. Read full review

View more reviews for Michael Clayton on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Smart, mature legal thriller isn't meant for kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that that although teens might be interested in this mature thriller thanks to star George Clooney, it's definitely aimed at adults. Fast-talking and complicated, it deals with complex issues like corporate corruption, toxic consumer products, and legal manipulation. An empty car explodes twice (the first time is a flashforward), and a murder is committed very coldly (by needle, with the killers attacking the victim in his apartment). A woman appears in her bra and slip, with visible cleavage, and a male lawyer undressing (down to his underwear) during a deposition is a significant plot point. Language includes many uses of "f--k," plus other profanity.
  • Families can talk about what makes this movie for adults, as opposed to kids or even teens. Is it the subject matter? The dialogue? What do you need to know or understand in order to be able to "get" a movie like this? Families can also discuss the idea of right vs. wrong. Is it always easy to tell which is which? What does Michael do that's "right" in this movie? What does he do that's "wrong"?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Lawyers and corporate executives use increasingly devious and illegal methods to cover up previous wrongdoing. Michael Clayton tries to do the right thing.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Michael's car explodes when he's at a distance; he turns to see it (this is a flashforward the first time it occurs, then appears again later). A man is attacked by two others, who drug and kill him, methodically and disturbingly (they inject his foot with poison, wait for him to die, check his pulse, then put his sock and shoe back on).
  • sex false3 Sex: Michael says his brother "knocked up" a waitress. Karen appears in her bra, showing cleavage. Several references to Arthur stripping during a deposition (a sign of his insanity); a grainy video of the event shows him upset and removing his clothes down to his boxers as he declares his love for the deposition witness. Slangy description of Arthur "with [his] d--k hanging out." Arthur describes being in a whorehouse with two prostitutes (he says they were "sucking my d--k," and reports "two Lithuanian mouths on my c--k").
  • language false5 Language: Lots of angry language, including more than 20 uses of "f--k," plus several uses of "s--t," "hell," and "damn," and fewer of "son of a bitch" and "ass." Occasional slang for genitals ("c--k," "d--k," and "c--t").
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Repeated clips from a promotional film for the film's central fictional company, U/North; fancy cars (Jaguar, BMW).
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Several characters smoke cigarettes. Several references to Michael's brother's alcoholism (which adversely affected the restaurant they tried to start); characters drink in bars; Michael drinks several times. Brief glimpse of prescription pills in a medicine cabinet.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

4.0

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

… appropriately dour and unhappy. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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