Michael Clayton: Difference between revisions
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It centers on [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Michael Clayton]]. Michael Clayton is a "fixer" --a person who solves difficult situations by tampering with the legal system -- at the law firm ''Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen''.
After leaving a poker game and making a quick stop to a major client's house, Michael Clayton drives off through Westchester and pulls off on the side of the road when he spots some horses on the top of the hill (
The movie then flashbacks to four days earlier, describing the events that happened before Michael Clayton's car inexplicably explodes.
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* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Deconstructed and subverted throughout.
** Karen fits this to a tee in what she does [[Punch Clock Villain|on the job]], but that job leaves her highly [[This Is Your Brain on Evil|neurotic and edgy]].
** Marty (the managing partner of the firm) has a line that sums this trope up perfectly:
** Arthur is an example of this who starts off the movie with a [[Heel Face Turn]].
** And the main arc of the movie
* [[The Atoner]]: Arthur.
* [[Blackmail]]
* [[Career Killers]]
* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: U-North.
* [[Default to Good]]: Several examples.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Michael essentially has to cash in his career, and quite possibly the firm he works for, to do the right thing.
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* [[How We Got Here]]
* [[Ivy League for Everyone]]: Averted, since the main character is a graduate of St. John's University and Fordham Law School.
* [[Leave the Camera Running]]: The final scene of Michael in the back of a cab.
* [[Love Makes You Crazy]]: Arthur Edens apparently had a crush on one of the plaintiffs in the class-action suit. This convinces him to stop his meds.
* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]:
* [[Magic Realism]]: The scene with the horses: it comes directly from an illustration from Michael's son's fantasy book and it {{spoiler|saves Michael from the car bomb.}} [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|Divine intervention?]]
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]
* [[Obfuscating Insanity]]: Arthur.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: Basically the point of the film. Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen profit off of protecting Punch Clock Villains like the insidious U-North corporation, to the point that Arthur's guilt finally gets the better of him. Karen Crowder is put in the position of protecting U-North and resorts to assassination. The assassins themselves are respectable business-types who take jobs while teeing off at the country club. Everyone is simply doing their job. In case we miss it, the opening scenes have Michael clocking in with his ID badge on the way to work.
* [[Shout-Out]]: I ''hope'' Clayton's kid's parents didn't actually let him watch ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' before getting him an Eva...
* [[The Spock]]: Michael Clayton.
* [[Stepford Smiler]]: Karen must arduously construct her aura of confidence. Scenes cut back and forth between the poised professional she seems to be on the job and the nervous wreck she is behind the scenes.
* [[To Be Lawful or Good]]: Arthur, then Michael.
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