Review:
"Dark Waters"
Release Date: Nov. 22, 2019
Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 126 minutes Dark Waters manages to both elicit outrage and induce boredom as it details in fastidious fashion a heinous corporate crime conducted over the course of decades. Director Todd Haynes takes a break from his enthralling and intricate character studies with this fact-based legal drama that moves as slowly as the case corporate lawyer Robert Bilott undertakes against Dupont. Mark Ruffalo seethes with righteous indignation as Bilott, who launches his investigations into Dupont wrongdoings in the early 2000s after being contacted by a West Virginia farmer about the unexplained deaths of almost 200 cows. The more digging Bilott does, the more he realizes that Dupont’s “Better Living Through Chemistry” slogan is B.S. Dupont has kept under wraps studies of an unregulated synthetic chemical, PFOA-C8, that shows it is linked to cancer and birth defects. The furious energy Ruffalo brings to Dark Waters offsets the tedium that Haynes inadvertently creates with his rigorous but drearily executed investigation into Dupont’s dubious and unethical business practices. Working from an eye-opening script by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, Haynes takes one of Dupont’s best-known line of products—non-stick cookware—and beats us over the head for more than two hours with facts and allegations with the intent to alert us to the potential hidden dangers in our kitchens. Haynes’ approach works to the extent that Dark Waters causes our blood to boil for more two hours and leaves us angry at how Dupont was able to get away with so much for so long and continues to refuse to accept responsibility for its actions despite the evidence uncovered by Bilott and his legal team. Dark Waters also takes aim at local, state and federal government bodies that willfully turn a blind eye to the possible illegal activities of a corporate giant, especially one that a community is built around. To this extent, Dark Watersdoes as much a commendable job of examining how a small community reacts to revelations of corrupt behavior by its largest employer as it does putting faces to Dupont’s many victims. Haynes also effectively shows how Bilott’s work intrudes upon his home life and negatively affects his health, but he wastes Anne Hathaway as Bilott’s supportive but concerned wife Sarah. Dark Waters makes clear that Bilott’s work is still not done. His is a noble cause, one that deserves a film that better mines the drama to be found in his discovery. Robert Sims Aired: Nov. 23, 2019 Web site: https://www.focusfeatures.com/dark-waters |
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