DARK WATERS : Tuesday 10th March 2020

'DARK WATERS' is a M Rated American legal thriller film which I saw earlier this week, and is Directed by Todd Haynes whose previous Directorial outings take in 'Velvet Goldmine', 'Far from Heaven', 'I'm Not There', 'Carol' and 'Wonderstruck' most recently. It is based on the 2016 article 'The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare' by Nathaniel Rich, published in The New York Times Magazine. Robert Bilott, the principal character in the film portrayed by Mark Ruffalo (who also Co-Produces here), also wrote a memoir in 2019 titled 'Exposure : poisoned water, corporate greed and one lawyers twenty year battle against DuPont'. The film had a wide US release in early December, has garnered generally positive Reviews and has so far grossed US$17M.

Inspired by a shocking true story, corporate environmental defence lawyer Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) has just made partner at his prestigious Cincinnati legal practice in no small part due to his work defending big chemical companies. However, one day while in a Board Meeting, he is interrupted by Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp), who presents him with a box of video tapes and urges him to watch the evidence of the slow painful death of his cows and the ruination of his fields on his Parkersburg, West Virginia farm due, he firmly believes, to toxic run off from landfill by the DuPont chemical plant nearby over the course of the last twenty or thirty years. Tennant knows Bilott's grandmother, hence the connection.

Bilott pays a visit to the Tennants' farm, where he learns that 190 cattle have died with unusual medical conditions such as tumours, bloated organs and blackened teeth. Bilott consults with DuPont attorney Phil Donnelly (Victor Garber) who advises him that he has no knowledge of this case but will help out in any way he can. Bilott files a small law suit so he can access data through legal discovery of the chemicals being dumped on the site. When he finds nothing useful in the Environmental Protection Agency report, he realises the chemicals may not even be regulated by the EPA.

At the 1999 Ohio State chemical industry event dinner, Bilott confronts Phil leading to an embarrassingly angry exchange that is overheard by everyone in attendance. Soon afterwards DuPont releases hundreds of boxes of historical records and files to Bilott's office, hoping to bury the evidence, and completely overwhelm the lawyer. Sifting painstakingly through the files Bilott finds numerous references to 'PFOA', a chemical that is not referenced in any medical textbook. In consultation with an expert chemical engineer he learns that PFOA is perfluorooctanoic acid, used to manufacture Teflon, and used in American homes for thirty years or so now on nonstick fry pans, carpet underlay, rain coats and all manner of other common household products. It's even in the drinking water. Bilott's research reveals that DuPont generate $1B a year in profit from Teflon coated products alone, so why would they risk that sort of annual pay day for the cost to human health and well-being??

In the middle of the night, Bilott's pregnant wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) finds him tearing the carpet off the floors and rifling through their kitchen pots and pans. Sarah is at her wits end with her husband's all consuming work on this case and calls him crazy. After calming Sarah down, he urges her to sit at the kitchen table and hear him out, while he recounts in detail what he has uncovered about DuPont. DuPont has been running tests on the effect of PFOA for decades, finding that it causes various forms of cancer and birth defects, but did not make the findings public. They dumped thousands of gallons of toxic sludge upriver from Tennant's farm and buried hundreds of oil sized drums of the stuff into landfill. PFOA and other such similar compounds are forever chemicals that do not leave the blood stream and gradually accumulate.

As the years pass, Tennant is shunned by the local community for suing their biggest employer, they are spied upon by helicopter, and he and his wife come to learn that they both have cancer - hardly surprisingly! Bilott encourages him to accept DuPont's settlement, but Tennant refuses, wanting justice and prison sentences. Bilott sends the DuPont evidence to the EPA and Department of Justice, among others. The EPA fines DuPont $16.5 million. However, Bilott is not satisfied. He realises that the residents of Parkersburg will suffer the effects of PFOA for the rest of their lives. He seeks medical monitoring for all residents of Parkersburg in one large class-action lawsuit, for which he engages the services of expert class-action lawyer Harry Deitzler (Bill Pullman). DuPont meanwhile sends a letter to every resident of Parkersburg notifying them of the presence of PFOA, thus starting the statute of limitations and giving any further action only a month to commence.

As PFOA is not regulated, Bilott's team argues that DuPont is liable, as the amount present in the water is greater than one part per billion deemed safe by the company's own internal documented protocols. Later in a court hearing, Bilott and Deitzler are blindsided by DuPont who now claim that their much later study found that 150 parts per billion is safe. The locals protest and the story becomes national news and makes international headlines. DuPont agrees to settle for $70 million. As DuPont is only required to carry out medical monitoring if scientists are able to prove that PFOA causes the ailments, they are prepared to hedge their bets and so an independent scientific review is set up. To get data for it, DuPont tells the locals they can get their settlement money after donating blood. Nearly 70,000 people donate to the study, each being paid $400 for their time and blood sample.

Seven years pass with no result from the study. Tennant dies, and following several pay cuts, his obsession with this case straining his marriage, and when Bilott's boss at the law firm Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) tells him he needs to take another pay cut, Bilott collapses, shaking violently down his right side. In the hospital the doctor reports to Sarah and Tom that he has suffered a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack - often called a mini-stroke, and brought on by a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain), caused by stress, anxiety and pressure. Sarah tells Tom to stop making her husband feel like a failure, since he is doing something for people who need help.

Eventually after seven or so years, one evening while back in his office, the phone rings. It is a representative of The Scientific Review Panel who apologises for it taking so many years to come back to him with their findings, but with almost 70,000 cases to analyse it was the biggest study of its kind ever. She tells him that their research has concluded that there is a probable link between PFOA and multiple cancers, other diseases and birth defects including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia and ulcerative colitis. At a celebration dinner with his family, Bilott is informed that DuPont is reneging and backtracking on their entire agreement, because that's what big multi-national companies do whom governments are beholden to. And so, Bilott decides to take each defendant's case to DuPont, one at a time starting in 2015. He wins the first three multimillion-dollar settlements against DuPont, and DuPont settles the class action for $671 million on behalf of some 3,500 other similar cases.

Whilst the movie lingers along almost to the point of monotony, there is still much to like here. Mark Ruffalo is well cast as the mild mannered lawyer going up against the monolithic corporate giant that is more than happy to trade human life and long term suffering for its staggering profits over decades, and then throw just about every road block in the path to discredit that lawyer and the mounting number of sufferers. This is a deftly made film that doesn't seem to steer too far from the truth for dramatic effect, instead trading excitement for efficiency and effectiveness in the storytelling. And it's a story that needs to be told if for no other reason than to highlight corporate America's wrong doing towards it's less well off and often downtrodden citizens laid bare for all the world to see - finally! As for the remaining cast, Anne Hathaway is wasted as the stay at home mum and housewife who barley contributes anything to the storyline, neither really does Bill Pullman as the lawyer headlining the class action, Tim Robbins has his moment in the sun when he delivers a rousing speech to his gathered Board members as to exactly why his company should go after DuPont, and Bill Camp slurs his dialogue so much that it's difficult at times to decipher what he's saying! Despite these flaws, this is still compelling viewing and a powerful message that is hammered home in the final frames as PFOA statistics are etched across the screen - forever chemicals being present in 99% of all humans! Scary stuff, and well worth the price of your movie ticket.

'Dark Waters' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-