The world is engulfed in poison, but the forces behind the toxicity are occasionally thwarted. Dark Waters concludes with that hopeful message. Inspired in large part by attorney Robert Bilott’s memoir and several essays by investigative reporters, Dark Waters depicts the David and Goliath struggle between victims of toxic chemicals in Parkersburg, W.Va., and America’s mammoth chemical corporation, DuPont.
But it’s complicated. In this retelling of the archetype of uneven combat, David has an ally in Goliath’s camp but is undermined by his own kind. Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) is a newly elevated partner in a tony Cincinnati law firm closely tied to corporations such as DuPont. He’s nonplussed when a rustic character in boots and tractor hat, Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), barges into his high-rise office demanding that Bilott represent him in a suit against DuPont for poisoning his cattle. Tennant doesn’t enjoy the support of his community. DuPont is Parkersburg’s biggest employer.
Bilott refuses but—and here the film lunges forward without much motivation—the attorney drives back to Parkersburg and decides to take the case. Although Tennant is acquainted with Bilott’s grandmother, that hardly explains the tenacity of his decision to go against the objections of both his firm and his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway), jeopardizing family as well as career.
As usual, Ruffalo plays close to the vest, seldom emoting or revealing. One guesses that Bilott half-conceals his Hillbilly Elegy background. He speaks with the ghost of a hill-country accent and seems slightly uncomfortable with the casual disregard of the elite. DuPont’s head angrily calls him “hick!” when the suit moves forward. It stings.
However, move forward is a generous description of a case that lumbered through the system at the speed of Bleak House, prodded along by Bilott’s odd determination and Tennant’s stubborn demand for justice. Some of the most unforgettable scenes, depicting the weird environmental damage to Tennant’s farm from DuPont chemicals, may cause horror-fiction buffs to recall H.P. Lovecraft’s prescient story, “The Colour Out of Space.”
Director Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven) isn’t known for political-legal “based on a true story” movies. He installs dramatic pivot points where necessary, but given the sprawl of the screenplay and the screenwriters’ efforts to condense complicated reality into a feature film, Haynes is left looking like a thin man in a size-60 suit. It’s all too big. Dark Waters would have been better served as a mini-series, a medium in which Haynes performed well with his adaptation of Mildred Pierce. The legal, scientific, ethical and social issues raised by Dark Waters are hard to contain in two hours, yet the moral of the story shines through. Sometimes persistence in the face of injustice pays off.
