The old man with whom I used to live watched a lot of television.  His preferred form of entertainment through this medium seemed to always involve the police.  Blue Bloods (2010-2024), all the NCIS shows, and pretty much anything else that involved the cops could be found playing at almost any time of the day.  The stories became too predictable for me to enjoy, but I should have liked Blue Bloods more given that it focused on a family of practicing Catholics.  Oddly enough, all these things can be said about today’s movie, Cleaner (2007), even though the main character, Thomas “Tom” Cutler (Samuel L. Jackson), is not an officer of the law.  He talks about going to Mass and confession weekly, but the story is about as predictable as its broadcast cousins.

One thing you might not predict but is explained early on is that when someone dies in your house, it is up to the family to hire a Cleaner to take care of the resulting mess.  This is Tom’s job, though he has a different perspective on these duties given his former career in law enforcement.  The story of how he went from being a cop to sterilizing crime scenes is told in bits and pieces in confusing flashbacks, but I am going to try to tell it now in order to contextualize the rest.  He had a wife who had been killed in some kind of incident.  He made sure the perpetrator went to jail, but then fell into the corruption of West Trenton police commissioner Robert Vaughn (not pictured, for some reason).  In exchange for further favors, Robert arranged for Mrs. Cutler’s (also not pictured) murderer to be shanked in jail.  It all became too much, and Tom decided to leave the force in order to focus on his family, namely his daughter, Rose Cutler (Keke Palmer).  This is how he got into the business of scrubbing death scenes once they have been investigated, and we see him go through the gory process a few times.  Among the early ones in which we witness his meticulousness at work is when he is called by the West Trenton police department.  Arriving at a well-appointed house, he finds the necessary key under a flower pot and starts the scrubbing.  The next morning, he finds the same key in his pocket and goes back to return it.  Upon entering the premises, a large group of people come out thinking that he is Ann Norcut’s (Eva Mendes) husband (again, not pictured).  In the subsequent conversation with her, Tom claims to have the wrong house and leaves.  It is suspicious, though, particularly when Mr. Norcut is reported in the news as missing.  With this development on his mind, Tom finally takes one of the persistent phone calls from his former partner, Detective Edward “Eddie” Lorenzo (Ed Harris).  Because Tom could be considered a suspect, and with all the shady dealings going on with Robert, the title person is keen to figure out whether they believe he is involved.  Thus, Tom arranges to go to a bar with Detective Lorenzo, who is just happy to be reunited with his friend and talks of missing his goddaughter.  I guess this makes Detective Lorenzo Catholic, too, so hooray for that, at least.  For now, Tom remains close-lipped about the job he had done at the Norcut mansion, particularly when another officer, Detective James “Jim” Vargas (Luis Guzmán), greets them at the same watering hole.  Indeed, Tom would have stayed quiet had it not been for Ann showing up at his office wanting answers for why he had been to her house.  Though he manages to still say nothing, he finally turns to Detective Lorenzo for help.  Their discussion leads to the realization that Tom could be implicated given the amount of cleaning agents found at the Norcut house.  In short, Tom is being drawn back into the world he thought he had left in order to try and clear his name.  Doing so becomes more daunting, however, when Ann leads him to a ledger kept by her husband listing all the payouts Robert had made, with his own badge number among the entries.  Detective Lorenzo’s advice is to burn the log, but Tom is tired of covering up for dirty dealings in the city.  Instead, Tom continues to help Ann, even though this means continued run-ins with Detective Vargas, who increasingly suspects the scrubber is guilty.  What changes is when she is called in to identify Mr. Norcut’s body, and Tom accompanies her.  The task proves too much for Ann, who asks to be excused.  While she is out, Tom converses with Arlo Grange (Robert Forster), the coroner and an old friend.  Arlo reveals that Ann’s husband had a vasectomy, which piques Tom’s interest.  Earlier, Ann had claimed that she had lost a baby, but this development suggests that it could not have been by her spouse.  In other words, she is hiding something.  The missing piece is discovered when Tom talks over the new information with Detective Lorenzo.  On the shelf of his apartment is an award from the charity Ann runs.  The idea had been to set up Detective Vargas, but now Tom contacts the other officer as he is on the way to confronting Ann.  Tom gets there as she is packing her car to go away, and eventually she admits that it had been Detective Lorenzo who had impregnated her.  She had a miscarriage, but had not revealed the loss of the child to the father.  Detective Lorenzo assumed that Mr. Norcut had forced her to get an abortion, and murdered the spouse.  As such, Tom makes a deal with Detective Vargas in exchange for the logbook to arrest Detective Lorenzo.  Instead, the latter of these holds Rose hostage until the young lady shoots and kills Detective Lorenzo as an argument is about to commence.

In the aftermath of the shooting at the end of Cleaner we see Tom hand the logbook to Detective Vargas.  One thing I did not emphasize in the synopsis is that Detective Vargas is another of the Trenton’s crooked cops.  To that end, he promises to dispose of it.  Put differently, none of the illicit things that had gone on under Robert will be adjudicated.  As a Catholic, I cannot get behind such a conclusion.  Granted, it is not our place to make sure that criminals receive what is their due.  Ultimate justice is up to God.  We can have a judicial system and hope that perpetrators serve their time and, perhaps, are rehabilitated as citizens.  Speaking of rehabilitation, how does covering up crime accomplish that goal?  What we are talking about is dishonesty from antagonists and protagonists alike in this story.  Forgive me if this makes me too square of a Catholic, but I like my heroes to actually be heroic.  While we should not look for opportunities for martyrdom, we should also not so blatantly side-step them when they come our way as we see here.  I am thankful that I have not had to face such a choice, but Catholic History is full of people who have sacrificed themselves instead of giving in to sin.  We call them martyrs, and again, it is not easy.  The film does have an excuse, which I could frame in a Christian tone.  After all, Tom is a father, and it is always best for a child to have at least one parent.  If there is one consistency in the plot, it is Tom’s constant worry for Rose.  At the same time, that does not justify surrendering to corruption when you can possibly do a greater good.

Once more, it is easy to say that we always need to think of the greater good when we do not have to deal with the same kind of predicament as Tom in Cleaner.  At the same time, it is a wasted opportunity for something greater to come of this terribleness.  I mean that cinematically and spiritually, and that will serve as my recommendation.