Went to see Michael Clayton yesterday. Yes, it's true, I've already seen it once before, but it's a new year, and it was re-released because it received so many awards and nominations, so I feel entitled to counting it again. I liked it just as much as on the first viewing. It was an entirely different experience, because I knew what would happen.
After my first viewing, I said, "I liked how the film was set up - it started with a frantic Wilkinson talking over white-on-black opening credits, then three vignettes from the end of the story, then it looped back around and explained the whole thing. I like that, being presented with things without being given the entire explanation all at once."
On second viewing, I felt an almost giddy sense of anticipation, and I got to appreciate the little details more, how well it was constructed, and how fine the acting was, all around. Today, Clooney's and Wilkinson's voices keep echoing in my head, repeating some of my favorite lines.
PS: Great interview with Tilda Swinton at Backstage. She says this about her role:
Back Stage: Did you do any special preparation to play Karen Crowder aside from meeting with real high-powered female attorneys?
Swinton: I felt her relationship with her body and her physicality was very important. Everything she does is uncomfortable. Every piece of clothing she has doesn't fit. It's either too tight or too loose. Those people have a uniform, and you can virtually get fired for wearing the wrong color shoes. It's military. I think of her as a poor actress badly cast. She's really out of sync with everything. She's in the wrong hair color. She's in the wrong makeup scheme. None of it fits. I had this first image that came directly from the script. It's a scene where she's on a treadmill just before she's preparing to bring in this deal for U/North, and I just had this fantasy of her with a potbelly. You put a lean woman on a treadmill with a set of legal notes, and she's a success. She's someone who's running to maintain a level of fitness. Karen is constantly striving for something that doesn't exist in her own life. That moved me. I had quite a few pies over the course of the few months before we shot.
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