It shouldn't come as a big surprise that moviegoers who got to experience the evil side of Tilda Swinton in "The Chronicles of Narnia," may wish to think that the White Witch and her role as a corporate lawyer in the new legal thriller "Michael Clayton" are one in the same. After all, it's no secret that lawyers aren't exactly the most beloved characters in fantasy -- or real life.

But the difference with "Michael Clayton" is that Swinton's character, Karen Crowder, isn't entirely evil, or at least didn't intend to be. At the heart of Crowder is a goodness that's being gnawed away by the guilt of working for a greedy corporation -- and her conscience stands little chance in the corrupt world that's spinning out of control around her.

"Karen Crowder is an officer of the corporation who's a mess," Swinton explained in a recent @ The Movies interview. "She's not this mustache-twirling villain saying, 'I love being bad -- she's actually trying terribly hard to be good ? her road to hell is paved with good intentions."

George Clooney plays the title role of Michael Clayton, an in-house "fixer" who cleans up messes for the high-powered New York City law firm of Kenner, Bach & Ledeen -- despite an inability to clean up the shards of the personal and financial dealings that have shattered around him. Crowder is the chief legal counsel for U/North, an agrochemical corporation that's on the verge of a multimillion civil settlement being shepherded to a successful conclusion by the Kenner firm: a small sum considering the billions the plaintiffs initially sought in a class-action suit.

But when the firm's guilt-ridden top litigator Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkenson) has a meltdown and threatens to blow the case apart, Clayton's and Crowder's worlds collide, leading the fixer to wake up to the cold, hard realities of who he's become -- and the counselor to resort to desperate measures to shield the conglomerate she's paid to protect.

Since the players behind U/North and the Kenner firm are mostly addled with deep flaws, there are no clear-cut good guys and bad guys in "Michael Clayton." There's no mistaking, though, that at the root of the problem is money -- and lots of it. And while Swinton admits that she can't truly know in real life what's it's like to be in a position of being responsible for billions of dollars, "Michael Clayton" has enabled her as a performer to at least develop an understanding.

"The terrible thing about billions of dollars is that when you are in a position in your work or your life when you start bandying about billions of dollars, it does something to your soul," said the 47-year-old actress. "It does something to your grip on what really matters in life and one's priorities. I think people get hypnotized by the idea that billions of dollars are worth more than human life at any level -- whether it's a question of life or death, or a question of a person's quality of life."

The wonderful thing about "Michael Clayton" is that it strikes an effective balance that enables it to inform and entertain its audience at the same time. Masterfully constructed by writer-director Tony Gilroy (screenwriter of the last two "Bourne" movies), the film effectively calls out the white-collar scum that plagues society, but not in dull and preachy sort of way.

"I think that's one of the great successes of films like this and filmmakers like Tony Gilroy, that they can prove that they can touch quite a profound nerve in people with questions of how they exist in society, questions about what human beings do to one another and how they get into inhuman situations," Swinton said. "But at the same time, they can have a really good ride. It doesn't have to be proselytizing and having one's head being beaten against a brick wall with the subject matter."

And as an unexpected bonus, Swinton said she loves the fact that "Michael Clayton" can loosen its collar once in a while.

"Personally, I find a lot of 'Michael Clayton' very funny," Swinton beamed. "That's not something that a lot of people are writing about, but it's something that people can be nicely surprised by."

If audiences love seeing Clooney's and Swinton's name sharing the marquee with "Michael Clayton," they'll be happy to know that the pair will co-star next year in the Coen brothers' comedy drama "Burn After Reading."

"He feels to me to be happy and it's wonderful to be around people that way," Swinton said of Clooney. "It seems to me like he's settling into his life and he's being effective with his choices of projects. I'm very privileged to be around him."

--Now playing in select cities, "Michael Clayton" opens Friday in theaters nationwide.