The film's themes are powerful and intriguing, and Costa-Gavras, as he has before, tries to use cinematic suspense as a mode of ethical inquiry.

But a series of criminal investigations, court cases and ethical inquiries have turned what was once a potent collection of allies into potential liabilities.

There are also six "modes of inquiry" - like "cross-cultural inquiry" (comparative study of cultures) and "ethical inquiry" (moral reasoning, say).

The payment, which was first reported yesterday in The New York Post, does not end the ethical inquiry into the trip, however.

Charles Stillman, a lawyer hired by Mr. Dinkins for the case, said yesterday: "If it is true that there is no recommendation for any criminal or ethical inquiries, then the matter is concluded.

To the Editor: As someone who seriously believes that ethical inquiry is the foremost task of mankind, I am no fan of the Clintons.

The main argument for affirmative action appeals to compensatory justice, a topic central to ethical inquiry since at least Aristotle.

In 2006-2008 he was chairman of "An inquiry into the legal, ethical, and professional considerations involved in the acquisition and receipt of cultural property in UCL."

Unfortunately, Mr. Costa-Gavras, who has in the past been deft at using suspense as a mode of ethical inquiry, fails to bring them to dramatic life.

His puppet people and phony plots are an excuse for rhetorical showboating, neither a source of human value nor the medium of legitimate ethical inquiry.