Riveting from first til last, “Michael Clayton” is equal parts thriller and character study. George Clooney has his best leading role to date in the title part, a trouble shooting lawyer whose personal fiscal problems have messed with his moral compass. When a senior partner in his firm has a mental breakdown whilst defending a nasty corporate polluter Clayton’s clean up operation becomes crucial to both firms’ survival as much as his own.

By keeping the ecological issues in the background writer director Tony Gilroy achieves something like the opposite of the bleeding hearted “A Civil Action”. His films is a whole lot tougher, with memorable character turns from the likes of Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and the late Sydney Pollack.

Richard Swainson