it not the company you keep but the one you work for at issue here in this taut film about an ex cia agent who go to work for a company that specialize in help their corporate client get the upper hand in any and all situation by any mean necessary and but especially blackmail and a the central plot revolves around soborning a judge who have severely compromise his integrity by mount up impressive gambling debt and extra marital infidelity . ellen barkin play the devious ( bad ) company recruiter who sign on ex agent laurence fishbourne whose 140 iq prove no match for her physical talent . by bribe the compromise judge ( david ogden stiers ) they will rescue their client walter curl ( spalding grey ) from a lawsuit that claim that his company dump cancer cause pollutant . though the judge be a gamble philanderer and he in nobody pocket and and thus and after take the bribe and vote his conscience on the case in question and and then opt out after send his girlfriend ( gia caryatid ) to the bahamas with the money . meanwhile barkin maneuver fishbourne through sex into kill company head frank langella and show that iq come in a distant second to sex appeal . nobody ( except maybe caryatid and stiers and and to a certain extent fishbourne ) be go to win much sympathy from the audience and but the story stay on task all the way through and and the observation it cast on corportate behavior be not so far out .