On the basis of his personal life, hit-and-run is Michael's specialty. He's divorced. His family of origin, an Irish American clan, many of them cops, disapprove of how their "Mickey" represents corporate scofflaws.
Pursed, pained and shadow-ridden as if his charisma had just been surgically removed by organ thieves, Clooney is compelling in Tony Gilroy's directorial debut. The filmmaker, best known as the scribe of the Bourne trilogy, wears both director and writer hats here, and the results are electrifying.
As Gilroy frames the story, Michael is not just estranged from his wife and siblings, he is increasingly alienated from his corporate family.
Assigned to babysit the firm's star lawyer, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson), who is bipolar and defaming the agribusiness that the firm is defending, Michael ruefully recognizes that at least Arthur still can distinguish between truth and deception. So accustomed is Michael to blurring the distinctions he no longer can tell the difference.
Gilroy commands audience attention by introducing the film with a series of evocative shots. In quick succession, he shows a high-stakes poker game, a high-stakes corporate merger, and an exploding Mercedes.
The writer/director takes his good time connecting the narrative dots between the three events, reeling the audience in slowly and confidently. (Gilroy's brother, John, deserves credit for the film's crisp editing. And perhaps their father, Frank, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Subject Was Roses, deserves credit for instilling the sharp storytelling sense of both sons.)
