Dark Waters is an interesting movie. Kind of.
It's the kind of movie that might be more interesting to someone like me — one fascinated with the whys and hows of whether or not a movie works — than the average moviegoer just looking to be moved or entertained, because this movie treads back and forth between good and bland filmmaking, almost like it's deliberate.
For the most part, Dark Waters is your standard, awards-season, revelatory-true-story melodrama. It recounts the events — which would become a national news saga — of corporate defense lawyer Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) working with the DuPont chemical company in the late 90s when he uncovers some nefarious behavior on their part.
Rob's job at the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister mostly involves protecting companies like DuPont from legal action. This changes when he's asked by farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) to come look at what the water is doing to his cattle at his farm in Rob's hometown of Parkersburg, West Virgina. 190 of Wilbur's cows have mysteriously died, and, as it turns out, his farm is down-river from a DuPont chemical plant, and he's certain it's their fault.
Rob is naturally torn between his corporate defense role and his desire to do something about Wilbur's situation. What he uncovers in DuPont's archives spirals and explodes into what would be the Teflon scandal of the 2000s. DuPont had been using a chemical compound — PFOA, as it's known in the film — in their ubiquitous Teflon non-stick frying pans and countless other products across multiple industries, and had discovered decades ago in self-testing that it was gratuitously toxic and carcinogenic, and had continued to make Teflon using PFOA regardless. Unable to reconcile this, Rob begins a years-long saga of investigating and suing DuPont for their dangerous and reckless chemical practices and endangering the lives of millions.
As I previously mentioned, Dark Waters is largely formulaic — a "they knew the whole time?!" thriller for the anti-corporate age. It earns points, however, in its unwillingness to skimp on the details of legal research and chemical jargon. When Rob manages a court order for discovery on any DuPont records pertaining to PFOA, and a literal room-full of boxes arrive, you begin to feel some ounce of the weight on Rob's shoulders as he digs in and begins categorizing the documents, sheet by sheet, surrounded by towering stacks of cardboard and paper.
Likewise, the performances are full of conviction. Ruffalo's frumpy physicality as Rob grounds him in the world of hum-drum corporate superficiality, and his trademark subtle facial expressions make Rob feel like more than just a Hollywood star in "normal people clothes." Anne Hathaway as Rob's wife Sarah is also great; at first I was concerned she was going to be the helpless, teary housewife that's so frustratingly common to this genre, but she gets her moments of fire and passion, and writers Matthew Carnahan and Mario Correa manage to work in some impressively understated power and individuality into her scenes.
But in spite of its here-and-there bits of passion and craftsmanship, Dark Waters never really thinks outside the box in its presentation, and it's pretty difficult at times not to feel that the beats are all-too familiar. Frankly, if you want to watch pretty much the same movie but with ten times the emotional power, subtlety, and craftsmanship, just watch Spotlight. It's even got a Mark Ruffalo Close-Up Rant™ just like Dark Waters.
This is surprising, coming from director Todd Haynes, whose filmography (which I haven't seen much of, but have read up on for this review) largely seems to be anything but conventional. He's even taken on the biopic before and twisted it to his own liking with 2007's Bob Dylan film I'm Not There. Perhaps Dark Waters was Haynes being a team player for the studio paycheck — I don't know, and I can't blame him. But I wonder if the man is better off working from his own script or ideas. It's hard to tell how much wiggle room he had on this one.
The film also falls into the common true-story trap of including things simply because they happened in real life, whether or not they have anything to do with the story being focused on in this film. Those inclusions almost always derail the story or at least kill the momentum.
By the time the credits roll on Dark Waters, you may or may not have felt something; I did, and was pleased with that. But either way, you've probably seen it all before; again, just watch Spotlight. Ruffalo's and Hathaway's dedication is laudable, and I appreciate the script's attention to detail and the thick lingo, but as a whole, the film feels more like an obligation than an expression for Haynes.