No one is claiming that corporate lawsuits are great sources of bodice-ripping film entertainment. But Michael Clayton has a healthy stack of moments: a murder dressed up as suicide, a huge car bomb, and lashings of George Clooney at his silky and seedy best as a jaundiced fixer in a powerful law firm. When rich clients are caught shoplifting or involved in a hit-and-run accident, Michael Clayton is called in to clean up the mess. But his Faustian talent has left scars. Clayton’s personal life is in tatters, his soul is empty and a late-night gambling addiction has shackled him to a dangerous debt.

Precious few actors can command empathy with such a miserable job description. But Clooney is a haunted marvel as Clayton. The legal thrills in Tony Gilroy’s film hinge on a vintage piece of skulduggery. A class action suit against the law firm’s biggest client, U-Form – a chemical plant that minted a fortune from a deadly weed-killer – is on the point of being settled in U-Form’s favour when their top lawyer has a nervous breakdown. Tom Wilkinson is a potty joy as Clooney’s senior partner. He decides to fight for the plaintiffs, and threatens to throw away six years of legal defence. Clooney is dispatched by his boss (a sly Sydney Pollack) to yank Wilkinson back into line or get him committed to a mental institution.

What’s laid bare is an almost psychopathic pressure to toe the line, to lie, to maintain a big picture with a frightening disregard to the human cost. With so much at stake, the corporate high-flyer at U-Form, Tilda Swinton, sets in motion a dirty-tricks campaign that is as lethal as it is misguided. She is Clooney’s poisonous double, and just as gripping to watch.

15, 119mins

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010