Michael Clayton

"I'm not a miracle worker. I'm a janitor." George Clooney simmers as Michael Clayton, a "fixer" who works behind the scenes of a powerful New York firm, in Tony Gilroy's smart, sharp legal drama. When he's sent to clean up the moral meltdown of the firm's leading litigator (Tom Wilkinson), he unwittingly stumbles into a corporate conspiracy with reverberations that could kill him. This description makes "Michael Clayton" sound like the kind of adrenaline thriller that made screenwriter Gilroy's name (namely the "Bourne" espionage thrillers, which Gilroy scripted with a certain realpolitik intelligence), but it's much more of a chamber drama where characters wield dialogue like precision weapons. Gilroy directs with a cool hand and an underplayed sense of drama, letting the words and the performances carry the film. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Screenplay and Best Director (both Gilroy). Tilda Swinton earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her unsettlingly subtle performance as a corporate lawyer, Wilkinson is a Best Supporting Actor nominee, and Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe and Ken Howard co-star.

Writer/director Gilroy is joined by editor (and younger brother) John Gilroy for a thoughtful commentary track. Tony opens with a preamble on how the production came together after six years, and follows up with a discussion on the visual style inspired by the 1970s cinema of Gordon Willis and others. "That's the style of filmmaking that we wanted ... Lots of negative space, an anamorphic film, the wide-screen format where we really use the frame, not throwing the camera around a lot, really build the framing." Like many commentary tracks, it loses energy over the course of the film but remains interesting. The 5½ minutes of deleted scenes consist of only three scenes, but one of them is a marvelous and meaty alternate opening with a character (played by Jennifer Ehle) cut from the film. The Gilroys offer optional commentary that is as interesting and revealing as anything in the feature commentary. Available in separate wide-screen and full-screen versions, and Blu-ray format. HD DVD format is scheduled for March 11.