posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
connielane at 09:25pm on 25/01/2008
connielane at 09:25pm on 25/01/2008It's quite good and there's nothing wrong with it, but ... I don't see what's so special about it. And by special I mean "nominated for 7 Academy Awards" and "number one on Richard Roeper's best-of-2007 list" special. Again, there's nothing wrong with it, and it's a very good movie, but...
It's like Tony Gilroy took a cluster of blockbuster cliches - corrupt corporate dealings, cover-ups, people who know too much being killed, etc. - and dismantled it like it was a bomb. Which is an interesting exercise and makes for a different kind of tension, but ... you watch a movie like this for the bomb. I kept hearing Dennis Hopper's admonition of Keanu Reeves in Speed in my head as I drove home - "Your problem is that you want to stop the bomb from becoming!"
I dunno, maybe it's just me. But this is a very delicately woven story, which means you've got to pay attention more than you're used to doing in a movie. Which is fine - I love having to pay attention, because it means the writer and director are doing their job. But there's just not enough of a payoff for that attention. I suppose there's something to be said for taking things that in lesser movies could be way overblown and just taking it down several notches and focusing on the characters. But I found the territory a bit too familiar to have been really blown away by it. I also guess that one could compare this movie to No Country for Old Men in the way both of these films sort of deconstruct the genre they're borrowing from, but I feel like No Country just ... does it better. And it has an obvious affection for the setting and characters, whereas Clayton, for all its emphasis on the characters, feels a bit cold.
GREAT performances, though. I'll give it that. George Clooney is more complex and interesting here than I think I've ever seen him. Tom Wilkinson is fantastic, as always. I'm "meh" about Tilda Swinton in general, but there was something very raw about her that I found mesmerizing (kudos to her for not being afraid to put on some weight and show it to the camera). And, as a fan of House, M.D., I *LOVED* seeing one of my favorite POTWs, Michael O'Keefe (the aphasia guy - "I'm tabled!"). Also, in looking O'Keefe up because he's one of those actors that I always enjoy and can never quite place what I've seen them in before, I just learned that he was nominated for an Oscar for playing Robert Duvall's son in The Great Santini - THE BASKETBALL SCENE, OMG!
It's like Tony Gilroy took a cluster of blockbuster cliches - corrupt corporate dealings, cover-ups, people who know too much being killed, etc. - and dismantled it like it was a bomb. Which is an interesting exercise and makes for a different kind of tension, but ... you watch a movie like this for the bomb. I kept hearing Dennis Hopper's admonition of Keanu Reeves in Speed in my head as I drove home - "Your problem is that you want to stop the bomb from becoming!"
I dunno, maybe it's just me. But this is a very delicately woven story, which means you've got to pay attention more than you're used to doing in a movie. Which is fine - I love having to pay attention, because it means the writer and director are doing their job. But there's just not enough of a payoff for that attention. I suppose there's something to be said for taking things that in lesser movies could be way overblown and just taking it down several notches and focusing on the characters. But I found the territory a bit too familiar to have been really blown away by it. I also guess that one could compare this movie to No Country for Old Men in the way both of these films sort of deconstruct the genre they're borrowing from, but I feel like No Country just ... does it better. And it has an obvious affection for the setting and characters, whereas Clayton, for all its emphasis on the characters, feels a bit cold.
GREAT performances, though. I'll give it that. George Clooney is more complex and interesting here than I think I've ever seen him. Tom Wilkinson is fantastic, as always. I'm "meh" about Tilda Swinton in general, but there was something very raw about her that I found mesmerizing (kudos to her for not being afraid to put on some weight and show it to the camera). And, as a fan of House, M.D., I *LOVED* seeing one of my favorite POTWs, Michael O'Keefe (the aphasia guy - "I'm tabled!"). Also, in looking O'Keefe up because he's one of those actors that I always enjoy and can never quite place what I've seen them in before, I just learned that he was nominated for an Oscar for playing Robert Duvall's son in The Great Santini - THE BASKETBALL SCENE, OMG!
pooped