4.5 stars out of 5
Sometimes a movie is good for you rather than enjoyable. Think Spielberg’s Lincoln as opposed to Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. This one is very good for you, is a little exhausting, but really packs a punch.
I did have to convince myself to see it. Sure, I love Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway, but watching a real-life environmental lawsuit play out? I never did see that Damon/Krasinski one. But then I was reminded that freaking Todd Haynes is the director here, and he is The Man. Sign me up. Ruffalo is lawyer Robert Bilott who, spoiler alert, belongs on Mount Rushmore. He is an American hero. Bilott defends chemical companies but then, in the late 1990s, a different case comes his way: DuPont waste materials have been poisoning cows in West Virginia. And maybe poisoning people too.
Bill Camp plays the farmer who brings this to Bilott’s attention. Initially I found Camp’s performance to be pleasingly raw, but it wears some over the duration. The dude is (understandably) a grumpy Gus.
As David battles Goliath, and the case drags on and on and on, it of course affects Bilott’s family life; wife Hathaway gets a decent monologue or two. His boss Tim Robbins tries to be supportive (he delivers a stirring speech too), but he has a firm to run. Just when the film is feeling a little tiring, Bill Pullman shows up as a local attorney, and he energizes the proceedings.
The ending really got me emotionally — it certainly helped that I didn’t know the details of this case. Ultimately it’s a classic story of, can the little guy ever win? Perhaps speaking to our troubled times, this important film tells us that we can never stop fighting.
Jack Silbert, curator