Dark Waters

This review may contain spoilers!

This film was an incredibly well-informed examination of the Dupont Teflon poisoning cases helmed by lawyer, Rob Bilott. I would give Dark Waters an 8/10.

Dark Waters is a biopic that follows lawyer, Rob Bilott, as he uncovers the truth about Dupont using poisonous and harmful chemicals, selling and dumping them affecting the global population. This is a complete examination of the atrocities Dupont is responsible for and the fight Rob Bilott is still waging against this megacorporation.I couldn't help but feel a complete sense of sinking dread as I watched this film, it is entirely horrific some of the statistics you'll be fed, some of the personal accounts. The film doesn't tend to over-dramatise so much as it sits there and informs you in no uncertain terms just how deeply the corporate corruption at Dupont runs and how human beings have been manipulated and mistreated by this company. It is a film about respect for Bilott and his fight, how meticulously the case was built up and for how long it has been fought for. You watch a man who expresses an initial interest into a routine case turn to waging a titanic battle against one of the most powerful companies in the United States.

Tim Robbins, who played Tom Terp, did a fine job of portraying the neutral employer throughout; I enjoyed seeing Robbins play to both sides of the divide and his eventual outburst lauding Ruffalo's Bilott really felt deserved. Bill Camp, who played Wilbur Tennant, was a gruff outspoken figure who really rallied against the injustices done against him from the start; Camp made Wilbur a fighter and a hero to the last. Victor Garber, who played Phil Donnelly, was as close as this film had to the perfect antagonist; Garber's corporate exec was a two-faced snake who spit venom at anyone who opposed him.

However, the best performance came from Mark Ruffalo, who played Rob Bilott. I think Ruffalo manages to do a very good job at selecting scripts and roles that really highlight issues that warrant attention and have a strong message about modern society. In this Ruffalo is a very restrained lawyer who does things by the book and knows how to negotiate his colleagues in the law sector. He establishes a really convincing indifference to the issue he is asked to investigate at first but you really see the curiosity start to gnaw away at him. The rest of the film sees Bilott become consumed by his work, frantically confronting people others would be too intimidated to or tackling a task most would shy away from. This film is a fight and the passionate monologues Ruffalo imparts that highlight the issues behind the Dupont/Teflon case are proof enough that this is one of Ruffalo's strongest leading roles.

Dark Waters is an incredibly brilliant script with a lot to share but it doesn't really know how to pace itself or manage some of its minor subplots. You lose track pretty quick of which supporting cast members matter because the film drops roles quicker than you'd expect or takes a while to introduce them, as was the case with the Kiger roles. The film really didn't seem to know how it wanted to present the home life of the Bilott family and it was by far the weakest aspect of the feature. The cinematography tended to look pretty bad and had a very worn, faded out quality to it; the moments in which the camerawork attempted to get fancy resulted in some of the lesser shots of the film. The editing set the groundwork for such a slow pace, there was a lot more that could have remained on the cutting room floor. The score for the film felt absent at best, I think a more consistent tone could have been crafted with more effort in this area.

Anne Hathaway, who played Sarah Barlage Bilott, was a role the audience tended to dislike which felt disingenuous to what Dark Waters was trying to achieve; Hathaway was a harsh figure with little empathy and not much to connect with. Bill Pullman, who played Harry Dietzler, gives a wild unpredictable performance that feels more like Pullman than the role itself; I never found myself understanding this character and he felt like the performance probably the most detached from reality. William Jackson Harper, who played James Ross, gives about the same quick-talking intellectual role he's been giving for the past few years; this is a character who jumps between best friend to work rival and was a small attachment we didn't especially need.