Dark Waters

Dark Waters is a movie of simmering, slowly burning anger, until its rage at the DuPont Chemical Company almost seems to want to explode right off the screen.  If you don't share that anger by the time the movie is done, you might want to check your pulse.  And yet, this is not a bombastic film, full of shouting.  It's the kind of rage that gets under your skin, disturbs you, and leaves you disquieted.  That's just the kind of film this is.

In the lead role, we have Mark Ruffalo, who reminds us once again that he is just as skilled at understated drama as he is in the escapist Marvel Movies.  The fact that he treats both kind of films with the same kind of respect is a testament to his talent.  Here, he plays real life lawyer, Rob Billot.  When the film kicks off in 1998, Rob makes his living defending companies in court, including DuPont Chemicals.  But then, a farmer by the name of Walter Tennant (Bill Camp) forces his way into a meeting with a box of videotapes that he says proves that DuPont has been poisoning the water in his hometown in West Virginia.  Walter is a sort-of acquaintance of Rob's mother, so he decides to at least drive to Walter's farm home to look into it, not expecting much.  What he finds is a mass graveyard filled with Walter's cattle, who all developed bizarre illnesses and cancers from drinking the water at Dry Run Creek, where the DuPont Company is supposedly dumping their chemical waste.

Rob is shocked, and the audience gets to share in his horror when the movie shows glimpses of the video footage that Walter has taken.  Rob digs deep into the company's history, and learns some horrifying secrets, mostly surrounding them covering up secrets regarding the material that they make everyday household items like non-stick pans.  He discovers a long history of illness, factory workers developing life-threatening cancers, and even women who handled the products everyday at the company giving birth to children with physical abnormalities.  Rob definitely wants to take a stand, but DuPont is a company too big to fail or even possibly successfully sue, as they have the money and the influence to tie up legal proceedings for years on end.  Not only that, but Rob's crusade will take a toll on his wife (Anne Hathaway) and his boss (Tim Robbins), who supports his efforts, but also has to look out for the good of the firm. 

But the whole matter is too disturbing for Rob to ignore.  If the water has this effect on cattle, what could it be doing to the people in the small town?  And just how long has DuPont been covering this up?  Most importantly, could there be people who know information but are not talking, because they're afraid of going up against a massive corporation that has its hands in just about every aspect of the small town?  Dark Waters covers the nearly 20 year journey that Rob took to find the truth, a journey that is still going on today.  This is a movie that plays it pretty safe, and dishes out a lot of facts to us.  But, it never feels like information overload, or that the movie is just tossing out info.  This movie allows us to share Rob's growing outrage, and his desire to learn more about the truth.  Like the best whistleblower movies, this film lets us into its world of corporate secrets and legal action, and makes it simple enough for us to understand, without dumbing it down.

This movie simply excels at creating a sense of unease.  It starts with a largely intentionally dull and muted color scheme, which perfectly represents the winter landscape that parts of the film are set in.  The look of the film and the way it's shot make us feel somewhat uncomfortable even before the facts start to come out.  Once they do, the success of the film lies in how we feel everything that the main character is going through.  As he digs deeper, he starts looking over his shoulder a lot more, wondering if someone might be following him.  When he parks his car in the company parking lot, he thinks he sees a shadowy figure watching him, and he panics.  Even when he's in the safety of his car, he does not feel secure, and we feel it along with him.  Director Todd Haynes (Carol) has built the entire film around the audience feeling the tension, anger and eventual paranoia that Rob goes through.  It's a film that starts off unassuming but ominous, and by the end, your pulse is racing even though the film is not exactly fast-paced.

Dark Waters is a movie that knows how to play its audience.  It puts us through such a range of uncomfortable yet compelling emotions that I felt a bit drained when it was over.  Some movies you simply watch, and some are powerful enough that you can feel them working on you.  This is definitely that kind of film.  It goes beyond being simply a compelling narrative, and becomes an experience that you feel.

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