Review of Cleaner (2007) by Danielle S — 21 Aug 2008

Tom Carver (Samuel L. Jackson, Hard Eight) is a cleaner, though not the type that'll wash your socks. He has one of the most gut-wrenching jobs on the planet: cleaning up the remains of death, whether it is natural, suicide, or homicide.

He's not some kind of morbid freak, however, who gets off on scraping gore from the walls. Carver is a single father and an ex-cop who quit his corrupted force and tries to help people this way. One day, Tom is hired by the force to clean up a homicide and, in doing the thorough job that only he can, realizes that he may have eliminated evidence vital to the case.

His sense of justice rising anew, Tom becomes embroiled in a conspiracy that may go all the way to the top of the force. Harlin admittedly does a nice job of infusing Cleaner with an appropriately understated sense of style, something that's reflected in Jackson's low-key performance, Harris, on the other hand, is just as intense and over-the-top as one might've hoped.

Cleaner is ultimately just one of those movies that, though generally free of outwardly negative attributes, remains strangely uninvolving for much its running time.