"This business is binary," declares the anti-hero of "Antitrust," the leader of a shady software megacorporation. "You're a one or a zero. Alive or dead."

That's a good numeric scale for rating this high-tech thriller set in the world of computer geeks and gizmos.

Give it a one for a promising, relevant premise about the potential harm an omnipresent tech company might have on economic opportunity and personal liberty. Give it a big, fat zero for failing to execute.

"Antitrust" begins with an engaging setup but gradually lapses into a messy web of cloak-and-dagger contrivance, implausible action, silly plot twists and dumb dialogue.

Tim Robbins stars as Gary Winston, the dynamic head of N.U.R.V., the personality cult of a software monolith whose young and dweebish workers worship their leader with the blind fervor of Hitler Youth.

Winston scours the globe for fresh talent and lands Milo Hoffman (Ryan Phillippe), whose computer genius N.U.R.V. needs to meet a critical deadline on its global-communications breakthrough.

At first, Winston is Milo's avuncular idol ("Want a soda pop or something?" Winston asks his new recruit). Later, Milo sees the dark side as Winston throws tantrums and cops a paranoid, bunker mentality when vexed.

Then Milo's college partner, who eschewed Winston's world to work alone, is murdered in an apparent hate crime. In an overblown montage of flashbacks and ponderous imagery, Milo begins to suspect sinister doings by Winston to monopolize technology through violence, theft and elaborate surveillance of the world's cybergeeks.

From that point on, director Peter Howitt ("Sliding Doors") lets "Antitrust" slip from potentially decent yarn to an improbable narrative and, finally, to climactic absurdity. Sense and subtlety are sent to the recycle bin as the movie takes the scope of Winston's reach to ludicrous levels of Big Brother espionage and government complicity.

The big showdown at the end turns laughable, with back-and-forth cuts showing Milo and Winston anticipating each other's moves to the microsecond and characters spouting excruciating dialogue.

"Antitrust" also goes over the top with whom-do-you-trust character shifts. People around Milo flip-flop from good to bad and back again as mechanically as changing a desktop background pattern with a mouse click.

The supporting cast is led by Claire Forlani as Milo's girlfriend and Rachael Leigh Cook as an introverted N.U.R.V. co-worker. Richard Roundtree has a small, uninteresting role as a fed assigned to keep an eye on N.U.R.V.

Like Microsoft, N.U.R.V. is accused by critics of unfairly maintaining a stranglehold on technology. After a fleeting Bill Gates wisecrack, "Antitrust" severs its connection to the real world and floats into virtual unreality, where the issue of open access vs. proprietary technology has all the depth of a bumper sticker.

"Antitrust" is rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong profanity (including use of the so-called "R-rated" curse word). Running time: 108 minutes.