Dark Waters (2019)

By: Mike Ward on Tuesday, November 26

PG-13 Running Time: 126 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Mark Ruffalo is terrific in this potent, sobering essay on how the DuPont Chemical Corporation knowingly covered up the poisoning of thousands of people through their practices.
Above all the sadness and tragedy Dark Waters tells us and shows us, comes the notion of just how believable all of this happens to be.
Legal dramas, with attorneys uncovering massive cover-ups, have built-in audiences and Dark Waters will play exceptionally well to the fans of those films and stories.

NO

Some may find this ultimately predictable and uninteresting, inasmuch as movies like this seldom are made without knowing how the end result will turn out.
The movie could use a bit of a tighter, more efficient pace. I’m all about movies taking whatever time they need to tell the story they need to tell, but Dark Waters bogs down a bit too much at times to keep us fully on the edge of our seats.
Despite working through all its steps and the ultimate summation of events, it is hard to not walk out of the theater or pivot away from watching Dark Waters and just feel like the corporate world lives for greed first, and everyone else second-hand. There’s a hopelessness about much of this which proves hard to shake.

OUR REVIEW

In Todd Haynes’ new eco-drama, Dark Waters, one attorney, Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) becomes an unlikely ally to a family who reaches out to him in desperation - a West Virginia farmer, Wilbur (Bill Camp) believes that something or someone is poisoning his livestock and making those in and around him sick and/or facing lifelong health complications.

Rob is a corporate defense lawyer by trade, working with a Cincinnati-based law firm, who serves as defense counsel for DuPont, among various others companies. DuPont, a commercial chemical manufacturer, is Parkesburg, West Virginia’s largest employer, and one of the defense firm’s most important (i.e. lucrative) clients. For Rob, everything changes one morning when Wilbur busts into the law firm demanding to see Rob immediately.

Borne from a legal recommendation made by Rob’s grandmother, Wilbur does not understand that Rob is not able to help him with his claim; essentially, he works for the very people Wilbur is angry with. Persistent, he finally leaves, but an impression is left on Rob when he learns that Wilbur blames DuPont, claiming that he believes they are responsible for the killing of more than 200 of his animals.

Unable to shake the conversation, Rob begins to tiptoe around an investigation into the claims. Instantly, partners and colleagues talk and he draws curiosity from senior partner Tom Terp (Tim Robbins). Terp is none too pleased that Rob and a growing persistence.. When Rob crosses paths with DuPont CEO Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber), he is promised complete cooperation in assisting with the investigation into Wilbur’s claims.

Rob, married to Sarah (Anne Hathaway), has a young family starting, but is increasingly finding himself visiting Parkesburg and other municipalities, beginning to uncover some startling truths. When he informs Donnelly he must move forward, Donnelly is no longer friendly and suffocates Rob’s office with hundreds and hundreds of boxes of documents.

And from here, Dark Waters waivers between a rather paint-by-numbers legal procedural, and something bigger and grander. We know how these movies typically go: Rob turns over new facts every few scenes and attempts to convince his colleagues that DuPont is complicit in a massive cover-up of toxic chemicals being used in DuPont products, in their disposal by DuPont facilities, and by being saturated into the very ground surrounding their Parkesburg headquarters. Suddenly. Wilbur may not seem so crazy after all.

Haynes has never made a film quite like this, and it is hard not to call to mind Erin Brockovich, which won Julia Roberts an Academy Award and was directed by Steven Soderbergh. As a rather dynamic visual artist, Haynes has used flourishes of color (or the absence thereof), balanced with mood and atmosphere to powerful impact, in films like Carol, Far from Heaven and Wonderstruck, Here, Haynes’ steps away from much else than a straightforward recitation of actual events.

While often inspiring, films like Dark Waters have a certain cadence and rhythm that Haynes drifts in and out of on occasion, working through a screenplay saddled with more than a few familiar tropes as utilized by screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan and Mario Correa.

Ruffalo however is captivating throughout the film. He looks to be in palpable agitation over the work he grows increasingly committed to and wears the anguish of an absent father, internal turncoat of sorts, and the audacity of what he is attempting to do. Rob clenches his jaw, stares, listens to try and understand, and is constantly reminded that time is ticking for Wilbur and his family, because not only is Wilbur’s wife suffering from cancer, Wilbur himself is seeing his health decline in escalating measures.

Carnahan and Correa do stay pretty close to the facts, as laid out in the source material, a 2015 report from New York Times journalist Nathaniel Rich. DuPont use of a chemical known as PFOA begins deeply problematic, prevalent in many of their products, including Teflon. All of which begs the question: How is this possible? As it turns out, DuPont were absent of any oversight and government regulation.

Even if we get a sense of where this will go and how it likely will end up, Ruffalo’s determined performance, with a gruff and desperate Camp serving as his de facto conscience for a significant part of the film, packs a pretty decent emotional wallop when one stops to think of everything uncovered by Rob and his team.

One would be remiss to not celebrate the work of Haynes’ frequent cinematographer, Edward Lachman, This time around, he uses space - both confined and expansive to remind us how small Rob feels, and/or is made out to look as someone lesser, when fighting against a corporate powerhouse like DuPoint.

Dark Waters encompasses a nearly 16-year fight between both sides.

Legal findings in one’s favor are significant. Guilty verdicts are important. But it is also fair to ask - at what cost to those who are the most vulnerable? For corporations, the penalty is often a headline-generating fine they can pay. For everyone else, the lingering loss never really dissipates and, in the case of all involved in Dark Waters, true vindication is hard to come by.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, Bill Pullman, William Jackson Harper, Louisa Krause, Denise Dal Vera.

Director: Todd Haynes
Written by: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Mario Correa
Based on the 2016 New York Times article, “The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Biggest Nightmare” by Nathaniel Rich
Release Date: November 22, 2019
Focus Features

Mark Ruffalo is terrific in this potent, sobering essay on how the DuPont Chemical Corporation knowingly covered up the poisoning of thousands of people through their practices.

Above all the sadness and tragedy Dark Waters tells us and shows us, comes the notion of just how believable all of this happens to be.

Legal dramas, with attorneys uncovering massive cover-ups, have built-in audiences and Dark Waters will play exceptionally well to the fans of those films and stories.

Some may find this ultimately predictable and uninteresting, inasmuch as movies like this seldom are made without knowing how the end result will turn out.

The movie could use a bit of a tighter, more efficient pace. I’m all about movies taking whatever time they need to tell the story they need to tell, but Dark Waters bogs down a bit too much at times to keep us fully on the edge of our seats.