Michael Clayton - Still not convinced

So continuing on with my oscar review.. Michael Clayton was the movie of the night starring George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson. After first look at this movie, i can confidently say that this is going to be the one movie that does not win the oscar for best picture of the year. It's a very interesting crime drama/thriller but it is definitely not oscar material. With George Clooney at the helm, it definitely is a lot of eye candy for the women but what i saw in this movie was a legal drama that had a slight tinge of facing up to moral and ethical issues.

Without much further ado, here's a brief synopsis of the story. Since this story is titled a suspense thriller, i'll try my best not to ruin it for any of you. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is a lawyer with above ordinary credentials is a "fixer" for a high profile manhattan law firm. His job is to fix any mistakes made by any of his clients. For example, he clears the name for a client who just commited a hit and run, or stop the presses from printing any big stories that their clients don't want out. The firm's big account is with an agro-chemical company called UNorth, whose account is handled by clayton's good friend Arthur. (Tom Wilkinson)

The movie starts with Arthur losing his mind, stripping and attacking his plaintiff in the middle of a hearing. Clayton meets Arthur and is told that there's more to the UNorth case than meets the eye. Clayton tries to convince Arthur that he has gone way over his head and tries to calm him down. UNorth's in-house counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton), meanwhile has her men follow arthur and finds out that Arthur knows some UNorth confidential information, has him killed and makes it look like a suicide. Clayton doesn't believe that the man he spoke to 12 hours ago, ready to take on the world, is now dead. He breaks into Arthur's sealed house and finds the secret that UNorth doesn't want him to know and is now the target for Karen Crowder's man.

And the chase begins...

This is definitely a weak nomination for the best movie category. I wouldn't say that this movie is boring and unbearable to watch, but for a suspense thriller, this movie lacks suspense and it lacks thrill. The dialogues are not very strong, and the picturization isn't that great. The characters are very poorly developed. For example, we find that clayton is divorced but remains close to his son, yet we do not see any character building between clayton and his family. My rating.. 2.5 out of 5.. I guess i'm a little harsh because i had high expectations for this movie. I will come back tomorrow with the highly anticipated "No Country for Old Men"

As always, all comments welcome..