Michael Clayton on Yellow Fever

After spending hours waiting at my dr's to get my flu and yellow fever vaccine (I am traveling to a tropical country in December), I met B for an afternoon movie. She wanted to see Michael Clayton and I like seeing films on the day they are released (of course I like going to private screenings best of all). The nurse informed me about the yellow fever vaccine: it is live, meaning that she injecting me with a tiny bit of the fever so that my body can build antibodies to the virus. Many reactions to the vaccine were possible, some quite worthy of a visit to the emergency room.

I mention all of this to emphasize that I was a bit agitated upon my arrival to the cinema and due to my disastrous imagination, anticipating that I might have to leave the cinema in order to address any of a number of new maladies inflicting me (I already was suffering from allergies and an on again off again sinus headache). Of course Beth and I sit in the middle of the row, and the showing was sold out (at 4:05!...but then again George Clooney is a star and a sex symbol) and getting out of the row during the film to visit the bathroom--or the emergency room--was going to be near impossible.

Luckily the film was entirely engrossing, if formulaic (as B put it, the reluctant hero fights against the system). I loved the opening scene (no opening credits) with the voice over of Tom Wilkinson (I like that the possibly mad lawyer appears as an acousmetre first) as the camera prowls through a law firm in the morning following a mail room guy, effectively setting up the conflict in the film between appearance and reality and between that which is heard and that which is visible.

The first sequence serves as the opposite to the final scene, in which Clooney sits in a cab, silent. The camera remains steady on his face--after he has done the right thing--to see if there is satisfaction, or remorse at missing out on the big bucks, or even exhaustion. Allow of these emotions compete on his face as Clooney threatens to look straight into the camera, but his eyes manage to dart away at the last minute. The camera lingers on his face too long and then, at last, the credits begin to roll.

Tilda Swinton is excellent as Clooney's antagonist--the chief counsel for the evil corporation. Her character is equally conflicted by her role, but she chooses the wrong path and Clooney must make her pay for this (and since the film is formulaic, she does pay). Many of the scenes with Swinton are her alone, preparing for her public role as a corporate spokesperson. Swinton's character rehearses in the mirror, changing her lines, examines her face and body, and prepares to sound spontaneous and in control, when in fact we know that she is scared to death of what she is about to do for herself and her corporation.

When I watched Swinton acting the part of a corporate spokesperson falling apart, I totally forgot that I had yellow fever.

The next morning I checked my temperature and it was below normal. I do feel achy and painy though.