Revised 10/22/07 to rid of possible spoilers… -ed

One of my fondest memories of movie theaters involve no one; an empty, midnight showing of “The Squid and the Whale” on New Years Eve. The modern day equivalent of going off into the woods to think, perhaps.

So I have the pleasure of adding a new film to that list: “Michael Clayton.” Strangely enough, I’m most enamored with its ending. I don’t want to give away too much, but the scene easily compared to the beauty and relative silence of many scenes in “Lost in Translation.” George Clooney plays a law firm “fixer,” a man left behind in the rat race to clean up others’ shit. It’s thankless and absolutely necessary, leaving Clooney in the uneasy gray area between good guy and bad. I haven’t had this much appreciation for him since 2000’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Tom Wilkinson also delights as a mentally ill – yet brilliant and entirely sane – power attorney.

I’m going to say very little more. Other critics have proclaimed it a “screenwriter’s movie.” They are right, in a way. Dialogue makes this movie; wordy, frequent and smooth as butter. I’ll let the trailer fill in any blanks I may have left. Go see.