A great film, but not necessarily a great Blu-ray release.
First time director Tony Gilroy made his mark by serving as the screenwriter for the three Jason Bourne films. For the past seven years, these films were the livelihood of Gilroy, but his gift for writing intelligent and detailed stories evolves with his story for "Michael Clayton" and with Gilroy helming the project as well, this is a personal endeavor that has the same deep and detailed presence of the three "Bourne" movies and the freshmen director shows maturity in his work and I was more than happy to see he didn´t utilize the quick-editing and fast-cutting techniques of Paul Greengrass and his ´shaky-cam´ that is quite familiar to those that follow the Matt Damon starred pictures. Gilory has crafted a tense and beautiful film that builds to an effective conclusion and showcases his ability as a top-tier writer. "Michael Clayton" is Tony Gilroy´s movie and while George Clooney brings an incredible performance, the success of this extremely good film is due to Gilroy´s writing and direction.
Video:
"Michael Clayton" looks good in its 1080p glory as a 2.40:1 framed, VC-1 encoded Blu-ray release. The film isn´t as deep and colorful as many other titles on the format, but it has a convincing natural look to the film that features nicely saturated colors and better-than-average detail. With Gilroy working so closely with Paul Greengrass for a number of years, I feared that the director would have adopted some of Greengrass´ style. He did not and for that I am quite pleased. The cameras used in the film are consistently focused on close-ups and constricted environments, but there are a few rather good wide-angle shots that give "Michael Clayton" a slightly epic look.
As mentioned, detail is quite good; however, I did not feel as if the film had a routine three-dimensional appeal that comes with high definition. I found the transfer faltered a little bit during very dark sequences and there was more than one instance where I had a little difficulty making out details in the dark. As a result, black levels are not overly impressive and a border on the lighter side a couple times. Colors are natural, but not overly processed and I felt the film looked very ´real world.´ Source materials are clean and there is a thin sheen of film grain in a couple sequences, but I didn´t see any problems with the digital transfer such as edge enhancement and while "Michael Clayton" isn´t a stellar looking Blu-ray release, it still looks quite good.
Sound:
An English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is provided for "Michael Clayton," as well as accompanying French and Spanish 5.1 mixes. Warner Bros. has nixed any inclusion of a TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM soundtrack that would have benefitted this film. However, "Michael Clayton" is primary contained in the front three channels and the mix primarily features a plethora of conversation, but not much in the sound-effects department. Clayton´s car explodes at one point and there is some driving sequences, but beyond that, there is not a lot of excitement in the sound mix for "Michael Clayton." The busy city streets do provide for some ambient moments, but bass response and rear presence is fairly thin for this film. Dialogue is the most important aspect of "Michael Clayton" and fortunately, the spoken word sounds very good. The musical score by James Newton Howard has some presence in the film, but becomes almost transparent behind the acting of George Clooney.
Extras:
"Michael Clayton" isn´t blessed with a nice batch of supplements. In fact, there are only two. The first, a Commentary by Writer / Director Tony Gilroy and Editor John Gilroy is one of those commentaries that will only be interesting to the absolutely most fervent fans of the film. The Gilroy brothers spend much of the time during the commentary patting each other and those involved in the making of the film on the back and praising their efforts in crafting this award winning film. They don´t delve too deeply into background information and I had difficulty spending more than a half hour on the commentary as I surfed through it by chapter stops. The collection of three Additional Scenes (5:42) contains an optional commentary by Tony and John Gilroy as well. These scenes are clumped together into one running supplement. The bonus scenes includes a romantic interest for Clayton and an explanation as to how Clayton knows about the merger mentioned in the film. The final two scenes tend not to lend much more to the storyline.
Closing Comments:
Earning seven Academy Award nominations, "Michael Clayton" is a very effective legal drama that mixes a top-notch performance by George Clooney with a wonderful script and perfect outing by freshman director Tony Gilroy. This is easily one of the best films of 2007 and the film makes its way to Blu-ray just as the Academy Awards ceremony hands out its awards to capitalize on any awards won. Unfortunately, only Tilda Swinton earned a little gold statue. Hopefully, the film can find a bigger audience than it did in theaters without a big party after the Oscars. It is truly a great film to watch. The Blu-ray release features a good, but not overly impressive visual transfer and the limited sound design of the film don´t allow the vanilla Dolby Digital 5.1 mix to shine. Supplements are weak. I imagine that a special edition release would have been a larger possibility had "Michael Clayton" won a few more Oscars and there still might be something better down the road. A great film, but not necessarily a great Blu-ray release.
Video:
"Michael Clayton" looks good in its 1080p glory as a 2.40:1 framed, VC-1 encoded Blu-ray release. The film isn´t as deep and colorful as many other titles on the format, but it has a convincing natural look to the film that features nicely saturated colors and better-than-average detail. With Gilroy working so closely with Paul Greengrass for a number of years, I feared that the director would have adopted some of Greengrass´ style. He did not and for that I am quite pleased. The cameras used in the film are consistently focused on close-ups and constricted environments, but there are a few rather good wide-angle shots that give "Michael Clayton" a slightly epic look.
As mentioned, detail is quite good; however, I did not feel as if the film had a routine three-dimensional appeal that comes with high definition. I found the transfer faltered a little bit during very dark sequences and there was more than one instance where I had a little difficulty making out details in the dark. As a result, black levels are not overly impressive and a border on the lighter side a couple times. Colors are natural, but not overly processed and I felt the film looked very ´real world.´ Source materials are clean and there is a thin sheen of film grain in a couple sequences, but I didn´t see any problems with the digital transfer such as edge enhancement and while "Michael Clayton" isn´t a stellar looking Blu-ray release, it still looks quite good.
Sound:
An English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is provided for "Michael Clayton," as well as accompanying French and Spanish 5.1 mixes. Warner Bros. has nixed any inclusion of a TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM soundtrack that would have benefitted this film. However, "Michael Clayton" is primary contained in the front three channels and the mix primarily features a plethora of conversation, but not much in the sound-effects department. Clayton´s car explodes at one point and there is some driving sequences, but beyond that, there is not a lot of excitement in the sound mix for "Michael Clayton." The busy city streets do provide for some ambient moments, but bass response and rear presence is fairly thin for this film. Dialogue is the most important aspect of "Michael Clayton" and fortunately, the spoken word sounds very good. The musical score by James Newton Howard has some presence in the film, but becomes almost transparent behind the acting of George Clooney.
Extras:
"Michael Clayton" isn´t blessed with a nice batch of supplements. In fact, there are only two. The first, a Commentary by Writer / Director Tony Gilroy and Editor John Gilroy is one of those commentaries that will only be interesting to the absolutely most fervent fans of the film. The Gilroy brothers spend much of the time during the commentary patting each other and those involved in the making of the film on the back and praising their efforts in crafting this award winning film. They don´t delve too deeply into background information and I had difficulty spending more than a half hour on the commentary as I surfed through it by chapter stops. The collection of three Additional Scenes (5:42) contains an optional commentary by Tony and John Gilroy as well. These scenes are clumped together into one running supplement. The bonus scenes includes a romantic interest for Clayton and an explanation as to how Clayton knows about the merger mentioned in the film. The final two scenes tend not to lend much more to the storyline.
Closing Comments:
Earning seven Academy Award nominations, "Michael Clayton" is a very effective legal drama that mixes a top-notch performance by George Clooney with a wonderful script and perfect outing by freshman director Tony Gilroy. This is easily one of the best films of 2007 and the film makes its way to Blu-ray just as the Academy Awards ceremony hands out its awards to capitalize on any awards won. Unfortunately, only Tilda Swinton earned a little gold statue. Hopefully, the film can find a bigger audience than it did in theaters without a big party after the Oscars. It is truly a great film to watch. The Blu-ray release features a good, but not overly impressive visual transfer and the limited sound design of the film don´t allow the vanilla Dolby Digital 5.1 mix to shine. Supplements are weak. I imagine that a special edition release would have been a larger possibility had "Michael Clayton" won a few more Oscars and there still might be something better down the road. A great film, but not necessarily a great Blu-ray release.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]22852[/release]