Dark Waters

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Bill Pullman

Director: Todd Haynes

Corporate attorney Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) has just made partner at his firm when he is visited by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), a farmer from his hometown of Parkersburg, West Virginia. Tennant believes that the DuPont plant in town is poisoning the water and killing his cattle. Originally unwilling to take the case, Bilott visits Parkersburg and discovers Tennant's claims may not be false. What starts out as Bilott doing some basic fact gathering soon uncovers a web of lies and deception that turns into a 14 year legal battle with DuPont that not only puts his job on the line but his physical and mental health as well.

This story hit very close for me. Being from West Virginia, it was nice to see a film about the state that didn't portray it negatively, even if the things that were happening were bad. Parkersburg is an hour away from where I grew up and I had actually forgotten how recently this happened. It was also fun to see Bill Pullman play a character whose real life counterpart I actually know.

It's interesting that Todd Haynes made this film, as it doesn't seem like the type of film he would make. It's a pretty standard legal drama/thriller. It's weird to say that about a fact based movie, but story beats don't seem to really differ in these sort of films. That doesn't change the urgency though, and it really dives into what large corporations will do to cover up their misdeeds as well as the lengths they will go to to protect themselves no matter how small. They make a point to show how much the company has ingrained themselves in the town of Parkersburg, with the survival of the town reliant on them.

The real world implications of this film are terrifying. DuPont had created an unregulated chemical that causes diseases such as kidney cancer as well as other disorders that lead to death. Not only were they dumping this chemical into the water supply but they also put it in cookware like Teflon. Everyone used Teflon and according to the text at the end of the film 99% of human beings still have this chemical inside of their body today.

This is second film Ruffalo has been in where the story concerned something to do with DuPont. He gives a very earnest and urgent performance as Bilott. Same for Bill Camp, who's simple farmer has a realistic thirst for justice and to protect his family. As odd as it was to see Todd Haynes in the director's chair, it was equally odd to see Anne Hathaway take a smaller role as Billot's wife. She doesn't really have much to sink her teeth into until a scene late in the film with Tim Robbins.

While I don't foresee this film being an awards contender, everyone should see this movie. It isn't a surprise, especially today, to see a big corporation such as DuPont exhibit the amount of greed and corruption as is portrayed here. The film goes to great lengths to show the progression of time it took for anything to happen against DuPont. However, it successfully reminds us that until enough people stand up and continue to fight for what's right, these corporations will continue to do things like this.

B+