OWEN'S BESTS
3. Michael Clayton
It's rare for a film to get almost nothing but rave reviews only to end up underrated. The reason I think that that happened to Tony Gilroy's richly engrossing legal-malfeasance drama is that it was pegged, a little too automatically, as a genre film. That it undeniably is, only it doesn't feel like one. It feels like life that's been bent, without warning, into the shape of a thriller. Tom Wilkinson, as a corrupt lawyer who loses his marbles in order to find his soul, does a memorable piece of high-wire acting, and George Clooney, as the smooth fixer who doesn't realize how deep in the muck he is until he's drowning in it, has a heroic fire worthy of old Hollywood. He reminds you that great movie-star acting is great acting, period.

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