Dark Waters

“The truth has a man on the inside.”

Filmology Rating: 3 out of 4

Dark Waters was directed by Todd Haynes and stars Mark Ruffalo who is also the film's producer.  A corporate defense attorney, Robert Bilott (Ruffalo), takes on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a lengthy history of pollution.

What we have here is a very good film that enlightens a largely overshadowed aspect of American big-business. Mark Ruffalo's character begins to get more and more interested in a chemical company's dispersion of its chemicals and discovers that the well of secrets goes much deeper than he'd thought. Not only does this take a toll on him, but also his family. 

The family aspect of this film felt like the bare-minumum that this kind film requires. The first half of the film has Anne Hathaway, who plays Ruffalo's wife, pop up every half hour or so to have "that scene" where she protests about how this case is ruining their marriage, kid's childhood, yada yada. It definitely feels like an aspect that feels like a stipulation. 

This film is very slow, but in a good way. It is not the type of film that warrants a frenetic pace. It's a suit and courtroom type of film and I seemed to be enjoying the pacing until I heard a man behind me snoring.  The third act has almost atrocious pacing. It feels like the film is concluding, our protagonist gets good news, then the film keeps going into that conflict. Then that gets resolved and the film is wrapping up, then it went back into more plot and the film proceeds to do that for over forty minutes. It's this constant up and down pace that makes you want to yell, "End! Just end!" Even the theaters lights came on before the film ended. 

Though the film has issues, the main narrative was very involving to where you become an active participant in the fight against this big chemical corporation. That's mainly due to an excellent performance from Mark Ruffalo.

This kind of role didn't feel like Mark Ruffalo acting in a film, like in Marvel, but it felt like he got lost in this character and he was very convincing in the title role.

However, the most entertaining performance was Bill Pullman. Pullman has but three scenes and every one of them is scene-stealing. He looks like he's having so much fun. He has this hysterical accent and he's hamming it up like he's the star of the film. It felt like he was in a different film, but I couldn't resist how entertaining Pullman was. 

Bill Camp also has a significant role in the film as he's really the film's catalyst. I found his performance a little too mumblecore. Sometimes I could not understand what he was saying. 

It's a film that feels very much like a clinical dissection and it's very anticlimactic as it just sort of ends.
The first half of this film is absolutely delightful until the second half where the pacing goes through the floor. This is the type of film where you watch it once and go, "Well that was good. I'll probably never watch it again."

Rating: Rent It

-Nolan