Dark Waters

Plot

Rob Bilott is a corporate defence attorney – who is hounded by a family friend to investigate a chemical manufacturing conglomerate DuPont, who he believes is contaminating the water of a local town. Reluctant at first, he relents when he discovers it might just be true.

Direction

There was a very heavy use of dark and bland colours – with Todd Haynes using a similar colour palate that he used in his Joker film. The big problem I had with this was the time it was set – 1998 was not a bland ‘yellow’ era. There is little reprieve from this, so it does add to the depressing nature of the film.

Cast/Characters

Mark Ruffalo plays Rob Bilott, and he does a solid job – and it appears he may have matched what the real Rob Bilott’s mannerisms were. He was fine, but he didn’t blow me away in the role.

Anne Hathaway as his long suffering wife was quite underused, and her character was written poorly. There are only really two scenes she shines in, both are kitchen fights, but her feelings towards do not match.

I found the character of Wilbur Tennant, the main client of Rob very strangely played by Bill Camp, especially after watching real footage of the real Tennant. The character portrayed on screen felt almost ‘slow’ or ‘special’.

Screenplay/Setting/Overall

This is a very dramatic, and overly done so film – so it is very hard to watch. There is also no reprieve from the seriousness.

It does also mind boggle me that most of the events that occur – happened after the movie Erin Brockovich was released – and the similarities between these films story is almost identical. Because of that, it’s hard not to compare them.

EB was bright, vibrant – and had great characters with great chemistry together – filled with comedic moments to break the seriousness of the trial/case, whereas this film was dark, bleak and had no reprieve.

This is no way a bad film, but it is hard to get through.

3/5

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