Dark Waters (2020) Review

So this film came out earlier this year, but never came to the cinema near me and then we got to the pandemic so I never got the chance to watch Dark Waters, but the film has just made its way to Amazon Prime and I watched it last night and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees a corporate defence attorney take on an environmental lawsuit against a chemical company that exposes a history of pollution. 

Main Character 

Mark Ruffalo plays the main character here and he does a great job here, the man is just a great actor and he shows it in this film. You do care about his character and you are behind him the entire way, he just conveys a movie star and he makes the story feel really large stakes and that is mainly due to a really quality lead performance here. 

Supporting Characters

This has a really great supporting cast in it, Anne Hathaway plays his wife in the film and she is good. I mean there are times when I feel like she is underutilised but when she is on screen she has strong scenes and I thought the relationship was well presented here. Tim Robbins plays his boss and he is really good, they have a good working relationship in the film and there is one scene in particular where he goes off and gives a really great dramatic scene. Bill Camp is the one who hires Ruffalo and he gives a strong performance, you can tell just how much the whole thing affects him and how frustrated he is by the whole situation. You really feel for him and want to see him do okay and you just want Ruffalo to help him out. Victor Garber & Bill Pullman are great in their smaller roles, especially Pullman who steals the show in his 5 minutes and provides some great moments. 

Story

The story is based on true events, though I'm sure the odd bits have been added for glamour but it feels like a story that needed to be told as I like a lot of people didn't know about this story before this film. The film does a great job in showing just how serious this whole situation was and how hard Ruffalo's character worked to expose the chemical industry and raise this very serious situation. However, I would say that this film struggled in terms of how it told its story, the film takes place over 13 years but it doesn't do a great job of showing that. In a few minutes years pass in the film but the characters seem to be in the same space and doing the same thing and it struggles to keep you invested especially in the latter halves of the film, also the end of the film introduces a new part of the story and then just ends, I felt like it would have been way more interesting but you never see it. It feels like to get this whole story told, this should have been a longer film or even a mini series to document the whole story. 

Script  

The script is fine, there are some really good dramatic scenes in this film that make you care and make you realise the talent that is on show here. But there aren't really any humanising scenes here, and what I mean is that every scene is so dramatic that it feels a bit too much at times and makes these people not seem real even though the whole situation is very real. Also as I mentioned above, I don't feel the script was written particularly well in terms of the way it conveys the story and the plot. 

Style 

The style of the film is very heavy and does a really good job in showcasing the horrors that are going on in this film and make you buy into the situation and fully support our protagonist. The film is interesting, but it also feels like important parts of the plot are glossed over, because they have to in order to keep the runtime down and it does hurt the pacing making it feel a slower pace which hurts the film. 

Overall

Overall, this is a good film with an important story and filled with great performances. If you are a fan of gritty, real films with important stories then this could be a film for you. 

Rating - 7/10