DVDs in Review

Michael Clayton (Blu-ray)

Title: Michael Clayton (2007)

Release date: February 1 2010

Certificate: 15

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £22.99

Rating: 5/5

'Michael Clayton' is ambitious film. Consider the fact the movie's title is taken from a leading character who isn't based on a real person, nor does he have a glamorous job. In fact the titular character is exactly the kind of character who wouldn't want his name printed on billboards.

His relative anonymity fuels his secretive profession as a "fixer" – an intelligent, slippery attorney who specialises in getting high profile clients out of sticky situations. In Tony Gilroy's blistering dramatic thriller, he's played by George Clooney on Oscar nominated form.

Clayton has a gambling problem and a fractured role in his wife and son's life, but that's the least of his worries. One of the firm's leading attorneys, Arthur (a spectacular Tom Wilkinson) has had a complete nervous breakdown and his deranged antics are threatening some very big business deals.

One twist leads to another and soon Michael Clayton is fighting for his life. A lawyer with problems is suddenly thrust into assassination attempts and corporate intrigue. It's the kind of move a Hitchcock film would make, by taking an everyman and placing him against the odds, but don't expect any fancy action set pieces – this is more like Coppola's 'The Conversation'.

Its suspense simmers and reveals itself slowly through its characters' anxieties. These aren't puppets of some evil corporation; they are human. Every character here is fighting for survival. Not all will succeed. As a film, however, 'Michael Clayton' is a triumph of survival against the odds.

How many legal thrillers without guns and car chases bag Oscar nominations for its key cast members, screenplay, director and even Best Picture? Not enough like this.

Come Oscar season in 2008, George Clooney remarked that the only award he thought the film would take home would be for Tilda Swinton's perceptive supporting role and that the film as a whole had hit the glass ceiling of its genre. He was right. Films like this don't win Best Picture but this quietly gripping thriller raised that ceiling by a few notches.

Catch Tony Gilroy's great film on this remarkably clear Blu-ray release that perfectly accentuates the dark, autumnal 1970s style of filmmaking with wonderful clarity. 'Michael Clayton' comes highly recommended but is best suited under the radar, much like the title character.