Dark Waters

Queer Cinema icon Todd Haynes (Carol, Far From Heaven, Velvet Goldmine, Safe) directs films about the exploited, the marginalized and the dispossessed, people who are injured by circumstances but press on or don't depending on their proclivities. In many ways, the Mark Ruffalo-project Dark Waters fits into Haynes' portfolio neatly, as it tells the true story of a West Virginia town on the Ohio River being poisoned by the corporate goliath DuPont and challenged by Ruffalo's legal eagle David, Robert Bilott, a partner in a corporate law firm and former DuPont defense attorney. Bilott is made aware of the case of a farmer (a terrific Bill Camp) whose herd of cattle is decimated, he believes, by runoff from DuPont's nearby dump. Bilott is first reluctant but the farmer's insistence, and his own childhood memories of his grandmother's home in the town, spur him into what he believes will be a quick resolution. Haynes' direction is methodical and by-the-numbers, with Ruffalo (who never fails to hit his marks in any film -- from Avengers to Spotlight) displaying the physical manifestations of Bilott's professional and personal battles with the first-reticent and later-defiant chemical manufacturer. Haynes and screenwriters Matthew Michael Carnahan and Mario Correa have crafted a compelling story of greed and indifference that has several stirring moments of indignation and outrage rooted in the filmmakers' deep commitment to the value of human life and dignity. It is not a perfect film (some performances feel weary and indeliberate) but it is a marvelous statement for these times -- which is much more important.