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‘Michael Clayton’

It’s one of Shakespeare’s most famous quotes: "The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers."

But if Dick the Butcher and his co-conspirators in "Henry VI, Part 2" had succeeded in overthrowing the rule of law, they’d need a lawyer like "Michael Clayton’s" title character to clean up the mess.

Clayton doesn’t exist in Shakespeare’s time, of course.

He’s a man of his time. And his time is our own: when rich, powerful, respectable people (and the corporations they represent) would rather do anything but the right thing, as long as it’s good for business.

People like that need people like Clayton (George Clooney).

From a long line of cops, out of Fordham Law rather than Harvard, Michael hasn’t made partner in 17 years at his elite New York firm — and never will.

That’s because Michael’s the firm’s fixer, the guy who gets his hands dirty cleaning up messes so his colleagues don’t have to.

"I’m not a miracle worker, I’m a janitor," he acknowledges.

Before "Michael Clayton" reaches its conclusion, however, its title character will need a few miracles — and he’s the only one who can make them happen.

In his professional life, Michael’s been dispatched to squelch colleague Arthur Edens (manic Tom Wilkinson), the lead attorney on the firm’s biggest case — involving U/North, an agrichemical giant battling a class-action lawsuit for marketing a weed killer so toxic it kills people as well.

For some reason, Arthur has a mental meltdown as he works on the U/North settlement, going the full Monty in Milwaukee (a delicious coincidence when you remember Wilkinson starred in "The Full Monty") and proclaiming his complicity with the forces of evil.

Things aren’t any better for Michael on the personal front. He’s made his peace with his ex-wife, who’s remarried, and tries to be there for his young son (Austin Williams). Michael and his detective brother (Sean Cullen) may have a thorny relationship, but at least it’s better than the one with his other brother (David Lansbury), a cocaine-addled screw-up who’s just blown the $75,000 investment Michael made in his restaurant.

Which leaves Michael scrambling to find a way, any way, to repay his impatient creditors — by week’s end, or else. That is, when he’s not trying to figure out what to do about Arthur — and what made Arthur lose it with all those millions of dollars at stake.

And whether, even in his agitated emotional state, Arthur’s on to something.

"Michael Clayton" marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Tony Gilroy, whose scripts for "The Bourne Identity" and its two sequels proved definitively that pulse-pounding action workouts needn’t be brain-dead cartoons.

Amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne and law firm fixer Michael Clayton may lead very different lives, but they’re philosophical brothers under the skin, experts at what they do but ultimately horrified by it.

"Michael Clayton" also extends a tradition of dramas about high-powered attorneys who happily bury their moral compass at the bottom of the desk drawer. That includes Michael’s unapologetic boss (straight-shooting Sydney Pollack, an Oscar-winning director in his spare time) to the outwardly cool, inwardly anxious corporate shark (Tilda Swinton, diamond-drill sharp) whose killer instincts give U/North an undeniable edge.

Gilroy sprinkles conventional suspense elements (car explosions, corporate dirty tricks) throughout "Michael Clayton," but resists the temptation — occasionally to the movie’s detriment — to treat the enterprise as a full-throttle thriller.

That decision gives "Michael Clayton" the rueful slap and sting of truth. But it also gives it the sometimes plodding pace of real life — a dangerous decision in a movie as intricately, densely plotted as this one.

All of which makes "Michael Clayton" a movie for those willing to hunker down and pay attention as the manipulative characters plot their moves, score their points — and, at least in the title character’s case, gauge the price they’ll eventually have to pay.

Trouble is, Clayton’s out of money — and out of time.

Clooney portrays him with world-weary bravado, tempering his cock-of-the-walk charm just enough to demonstrate how Clayton can fool most people — and why he’s no longer willing to fool himself.

In the "Ocean’s Eleven" movies and other star turns, the cool cats Clooney plays seem invincible. But when he’s playing Michael Clayton (or "Syriana’s" Bob Barnes, the CIA veteran he won an Oscar portraying), Clooney expertly explores a character who’s on to everyone — but doesn’t quite have the stomach to live down to their level.

Which only proves that one man’s corporate failure is another man’s moral triumph — and that "Michael Clayton" is a success by any measure.

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