There’s only one thing Washington has more of than bad traffic: lawyers. So the relatively sophisticated legal thriller “Michael Clayton” ought to play very well here.

It’s got the glossy appointments of a big Hollywood studio’s take on the genre. The filmmakers crusade on behalf of a politically correct populist issue — in this case against a corrupt polluter, a giant agri-business conglomerate knee-deep in a cover-up. It features articulate, rapid-fire dialogue face-offs between and among dark-suited pragmatists. And it’s got — yo, gals! — George Clooney.

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