If you really take a hard look at “Michael Clayton”, it’s basically a movie that gives its audience the rare treat of watching a lawyer do something decent. Basically, we simply watch Clayton (George Clooney) and his fellow law firm colleagues behave like subhumans and sort of hope that, by the end, one of them steps up and does something right. Naturally, since the film is titled “Michael Clayton”, it’s Clayton who steps up at the end.

But is a movie about a lawyer who realizes he’s sacrificed his soul worth two hours of anybody’s time? Is this what morality has come to in America? We’re actually willing to sit and applaud and feel good about the direction of our own moral compass when a lawyer finally decides to stop screwing people over? I mean, Jesus, that’s sad.

Michael Clayton isn’t really much of a lawyer. He was a litigator, but now he works at this big firm as a “fixer”. He’s the guy the firm goes to when it needs problems solved. So, for instance, one of the firms clients hits a jogger in his car and leaves the scene and Michael is the guy they call to show up at the client’s house and explain to the guy what his options are.

Michael is also called on the scene when Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) freaks out, strips off all his clothes, and runs around naked during a deposition (or meeting or whatever). Either Arthur is crazy or he knows something that could hurt the firm and since the only thing we see is Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) defending some giant corporate chemical-type company, we assume it must have something to do with that.

So, I’ll bite my tongue and not give away the ending, but basically you just wait around to see if Michael does the right thing. In fact, the very end of the movie creates this false decision for Michael: take a bunch of money or do the right thing. Naturally, he does the right thing because a movie about a lawyer who sees injustice and then takes financial advantage of the situation when he sees the opportunity would be unconscionable.

One lawyer in a whole gaggle does the right thing and people are falling over themselves to praise this thing. I don’t get it.