Inspired genre piece. A bit of a temporal confusion for me about when
the flashforward ended at the beginning, but not a biggy. All scenes
tight and suspenseful. Like a good genre piece, however, the elements
were pretty bare, there to serve, but not so much intrinsically
whole. Tilda Swinton was the put-upon villain, Tom Wilkinson the
amazingly good lawyer who couldn't take it anymore (a la Network) and
the evil handiwork was deftly carried out. But the plaintiffs, some
rube dairy folk were just so clearly the necessary elements in the
story that they failed to convince. Likewise Clooney's kid. More
convincing performance and treatment than most, but still just not
part of an alive whole. Have a hard time watching Sydney Pollack act,
although he sure exudes being a nice guy no matter how world-weary and
compromised he's supposed to be, so I guess the casting could have
been worse. Liked the actor who played the cop brother, and in
particular the contrition shot near the end, where he communicated so
much in one shot (after having basically damned his brother, as he had
their third brother, in the previous scene). The end in the cab
playing over the credits recalled the end of the Graduate for me
(Hoffman and bride in the bus) but somehow with a lot less going on.
It seemed almost a task Clooney wasn't up to. Without an ensemble to
play against he's sort of out of tricks.