Dark Waters, directed by Todd Haynes, follows lawyer Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) during his twenty-year legal battle against Dupont.
The most interesting thing about this film is that it seemed to be another along the lines of Spotlight. In a way it is, but it’s also a very different film from Spotlight. This is not a fun film to watch by any means, but it’s a fantastic one and is a story that is infuriating.
True stories, well “based on” true stories, such as this film are things that are hard to tackle when it comes to elongated subject matter, such as this story. How can you tell this story that spans three different decades that still provides enough information to never make the audience feel lost? It’s difficult to do and this manages to do it incredibly well. Every bit of information that the audience needs to know is present throughout the film and it makes the exposition dumps interesting. Haynes doesn’t an excellent job of balancing out information and drama with his time jumps and effective use of time. It creates this underlying sense of dread throughout without doing anything other than jumping in time.
The performances throughout are phenomenal as well, Mark Ruffalo especially. This film hinges on Ruffalo’s performance and he carries the weight of the world on it. His performance is quiet and subtle for most of the film, making his outbursts of emotion hit even harder. The supporting cast is great as well, namely Anne Hathaway. Hathaway is honestly such an underrated actress and she’s fantastic here. Her character isn’t much more than “the wife” character that is ever-present in films like this, but she elevates the role spectacularly.
The only real problem with this film is with how it treats its supporting characters. Yes, this is Robert Bilott’s story, but having good supporting characters is important in a film like this. So while every performance is good, the characters themselves often get thrown to the wayside very suddenly and either only seen once or twice throughout the rest of the film or never seen again. It’s odd to do in a film like this.
Overall, Dark Waters is a great film that details the legal battle between Robert Bilott and Dupont in a brutal, heartbreaking manner.
