MAKING IT STICK (DARK WATERS)

  

'Dark Waters' is a very conventional corporate cover-up movie.

What it isn't is a typical Todd Haynes film.

The Los Angeles born director built his filmmaking reputation as a pioneering figure of the New Queer Cinema Movement with films like 'Poison,' 'Velvet Goldmine,' 'Far from Home' and 'Carol'.

However 'Dark Waters' follows the same beat as James Bridges' 1979 nuclear power classic 'The China Syndrome,' Steven Zaillian's 1998 environmental drama 'A Civil Action' and Tony Gilroy's cynical corporate law tale 'Michael Clayton' 

That isn't necessarily a bad thing.

In fact, it makes for a very effective, well made corporate corruption drama.

Based on a New York Times magazine article in 2016 by Nathaniel Rich, headlined 'The Lawyer Who Became Du Pont's Worst Nightmare,' Haynes' movie raises disturbing questions about the manufacturing of the company's most celebrated product, Teflon.

The often sympathetic Mark Rufalo is cast as Robert Bilott, a corporate defense lawyer for a Cincinnati firm, Taft, Stettinius and Hollister.

Bilott finds himself drawn in by his family into the case of a West Virginian farmer, Bill Camp's Wilbur Tennant whose livestock have suffered horrific deaths.

Initially reluctant to get involved, he travels to the farm in Parkersburg as a favour for his grandmother and is shocked to learn that 190 cattle have perished from grotesque mutations, tumours and bloated organs.

Tennant is convinced Du Pont is responsible but when Billot approaches Victor Garber's Du Pont attorney Phil Donnelly, he professes ignorance of the case and says he will help in whatever way he can.

With the approval of the managing partner Tim Robbins' Tom Terp, Robert digs deeper into the unlikely case for the firm by filing a legal discovery of the chemicals dumped on the site.

But when he realises the Environmental Protection Agency may not be regulating all the chemicals, his attempt to bend Donnelly's ear at a black tie event sees the Du Pont lawyer fly off the handle.

From that point on, Du Pont does all it can to undermine Bilott's efforts to raise the case - swamping him with hundreds of boxes of material in the hope that it will bury the evidence.

However the lawyer's diligence sees him develop an interest in a chemical known as PFOA - an acid used in the manufacturing of Teflon.

The grim reality of PFOA's effect on the health of Du Pont production workers spooks Bilott so much, his pregnant wife, Anne Hathaway's Sarah Barlage discovers him tearing up the carpet of their home in the middle of the night and manically going through their pots and pans.

Adapted with great indignation for the big screen by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, 'Dark Waters' does exactly what it says on the tin.

It exposes corruption, it rages and it puts its protagonists through hell.

We see Bilott painstakingly build his case against Du Pont, risking his reputation in his own law firm by going against the grain.

His dogged pursuit of the truth takes a toll on his family life and eventually his own health as the stress of the case hits home.

His dedication is also called into question at various stages by those who he is representing, with Tennant accusing him of selling out when Du Pont offers a corporate settlement.

All of these are familiar corporate cover-up movie tropes.

However what Haynes' movie has on its side is a potent storyline armed with the horrific fact that 99% of its audience has been exposed to the  chemicals it is talking about - a realisation that will make many shudder.

As the audience digests that fact, Haynes also draws out a determined and unsurprisingly intense performance from Ruffalo.

Bilott is a familiar corporate cover-up movie hero but Ruffalo is a great choice of actor to play him - stoking our anger and engaging our sympathy.

Robbins also impresses as Bilott's uneasy boss who allows one of his star players to wade into territory that would normally deter other corporate law firms.

Camp is as reliable as ever as the prickly but determined farmer who initially triggers the case - at a cost to his own personal and financial health.

Garber does exactly what is required of him as the corporate villain, while Bill Pullman amuses as a mischievous West Virginian attorney who joins forces with Bilott.

If there is a disappointment, it is that Hathaway's role offers little for her to sink her teeth into.

When onscreen, she is effective as a mother who has given up her own promising legal career to raise a family but you wish there was just more to it than being a concerned and supportive wife.

Haynes does an efficient job at the helm of the film and is successful in drawing out the complexities of a case that was initiated in 1999 and whose ramifications are still being felt today, with over $670 million paid out by the company.

His longtime collaborator, the cinematographer Edward Lachman eschews the usual vibrant palettes of the director's previous melodramas for something much darker.

The greens and blues give 'Dark Waters' a wintry feel much like Robert Elswit's work on 'Michael Clayton' but that only adds to the sense of déjà vu.

As corporate cover-up movies go, 'Dark Waters' is certainly a fine addition to the genre.

However as Todd Haynes' movies go, it is okay.

It is an absorbing drama but it just isn't among his most memorable work.

('Dark Waters' wax released in UK and Irish cinemas on February 28, 2020 and was made available for streaming and on DVD on July 6, 2020)