January 12, 2001| The makers of Antitrust do such a delightfully nasty job of demonizing Bill Gates that, when the closing credits started to roll, I half-expected to read: "A Netscape Production." Or, "Additional dialogue by U.S. Justice Department."

Don't misunderstand: Gary Winston, the duplicitous software mogul played by Tim Robbins, isn't really Bill Gates. But Robbins provides a more than reasonable facsimile of the genuine article, to the point of persuasively replicating Gates' ingratiating grimaces and awkward hand gestures. Occasionally, he even sounds like Gates, particularly when he says, in response to a government investigator, "Any kid in the world working in his garage with a good idea can put us out of business." That's his story and, by gosh, he's sticking to it.

Robbins' spot-on caricature of the world's most famous multi-billionaire is such a fiendishly clever piece of work, you can't help wishing his performance appeared in a much better movie. Antitrust isn't exactly awful, but it isn't anything special, either. Director Peter Howitt (Sliding Doors) and screenwriter Howard Franklin (Someone to Watch Over Me) strike an indelicate balance between trendy techno patois and creaky thriller cliches, relying heavily on cheap tricks and moldy conventions while striving mightily to seem as cutting-edge topical as next month's Wired magazine. To their credit, they do manage to generate some genuine suspense with their by-the-numbers plot. But Robbins gives the movie much more than it ever gives him.

Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe), the hero of the piece, is an idealistic young computer whiz who joins his like-minded buddies in a garage-based start-up enterprise. But before the partners see the first pennies of venture capital, Milo is lured away by NURV, the fabulously successful software company owned and operated by the notorious Gary Winston.

Using equal measures of seductive chumminess and steely authority, Winston drives Milo and dozens of other overachievers toward fulfilling his vision of technology for total digital convergence. (NURV, it should be noted, stands for Never Underestimate Radical Vision.) Unfortunately, that fulfillment is taking a very long time, and might not be ready for its much-hyped release date. The clock is ticking, and Winston - not for the first time, apparently - is willing to OK drastic measures for killer apps.

Milo is so pleased with his new job, and so happy that Winston pays such personal attention to his work, he fails to notice how easily Winston finds an innovative solution to each new research-and-development problem. Can it be that Winston - gee, how can this be delicately phrased? - makes unauthorized use of other people's inventions? Might he be doing something less than ethical? Could he be, well, Satan?

It takes the violent death of a close friend, and some profoundly suspicious behavior on the part of his live-in girlfriend (Claire Forlani), to make Milo nervous about NURV. Unfortunately, since he is the hero of a thriller and not a reasonably sentient human being, he blabs his worst suspicions to a beautiful colleague (Rachael Leigh Cook).

The implausibilities pile ever higher when, late one night, Milo breaks into a deserted building on the NURV campus, and conveniently finds incriminating evidence in a company computer. (That's right, Milo: Just open the file named "MurderVideo.avi.") But then, just to show they have at least a modicum of shame, the filmmakers stop short of turning Milo into Action Hero 5.0. Indeed, after he's pummeled by one of the minor villains, the bad guy jeers: "What's with all this Mission: Impossible 3 shit, man? You're just a geek!"

Actually, the dreamily hunky Ryan Phillippe must wear reading glasses from time to time in order to affect a sufficient degree of geekiness. And even then, his performance seldom rises above the level of a good try. Cook is equally bland, and Forlani snaps to life only when she's suggesting that her character has done bad, bad things. But never mind: Robbins is such a live wire that he jump-starts his co-stars whenever he interfaces with them.