You know you are in good hands when the actor chosen to come in and jumpstart the plot, give dimensionality to the film, or just wreck the audience hearts is Bill Camp. This is exactly who Todd Haynes chooses to do all three of these things in Dark Waters. Camp is a Virginia farmer who calls on a corporate lawyer he knows from the old neighborhood (Mark Ruffalo) to help him sue the big corporation that is killing his animals, his family and himself with the toxic waste they spill out in the water system and into the bodies of the unsuspecting.
This is just the tip of a big iceberg that Robert Bilott (Ruffalo) uncovers...
The film is inspired by real events and based on a 2016 NY Times article by Nathaniel Rich about Bilott and his expose of how corporate giant DuPont was responsible for systematically contaminating the blood of 99% of the world population with harmful materials they put in many of their products. Yes it is that shocking and anger inducing.
Haynes and cinematographer Ed Lachman take us into the hallways of power, and into the farmland ditches where the poison is spreading. Along the way they build a depressive sense of the enormity of the situation as Bilott continues his indefatigable crusade to find and expose the truth. They are as resolute in presenting this story with no varnish and with just the right set of paranoid detachment as Bilott is in his pursuit.
That is most evident in a brilliant scene where the enormity and scope of his discovery overwhelm Bilott in the middle of the night and drive him to noisily check out the pipes in his house and all the utensils in the kitchen waking up his wife in the process. He fails to rationally explain to her what he’s doing and what he’s afraid of; Haynes reveals that the world can view conspiracy theorists as crazy even when they are absolutely correct. Sometimes the truth is more wicked than any outlandish theory. If only the by-the-book screenplay had more of these compelling scenes.
Bilott’s wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) will give long time fans of Haynes whiplash. The director most adept at chronicling women’s inner lives in movies like Safe (1995), Far From Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015) has gone ahead and given us a stock supporting wife character. You know the kind -- she's always in the background, trying to convince the great man of not harming himself while doing the great thing and/or supporting him while he does the great thing. Hathaway does that and she does her best with the material, sometimes straining a bit harder than needed to get noticed. Of course this is the script’s fault - credited to Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan. However you’d think that if anyone would’ve been able to add soul and depth to that stereotype it would be Haynes, but alas even he fails this time.
I'm sure it’s a nod to the real person but Ruffalo gives a charisma-free performance. He’s dogged and quiet, but does not vary his performance or give the audience anything to latch onto. This film needed a dose of charm to make it more palatable as Haynes’ effective mood and the story itself provide plenty of paranoia and anger. The comparisons to Erin Brockovich (2000) are easy to make but the Steven Soderbergh inspiration Haynes should’ve taken to heart is that crusading and organizing are more satisfying when you let your star be hot. All the more reason to be thankful that Camp is on screen to give the film a boost of verve and pathos.
Still, here's a sign that the film has met all the goals it has set for itself: you leave the screening wanting to scream as loud as you can and to fight corporations as doggedly as Bilott. B