Dark Waters Movie Review

No, it’s not about Hulk destroying a huge company

Dark Waters is a legal thriller movie which narrates the environmental case handled by Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo). It’s started when Rob’s legal office was visited by a cattleman who asked him to sue the corporation who he claimed has damaged his cattle. Firstly, Rob didn’t interested with the case despite he’s got the evidences from the cattleman, because his firm only interested in big clients too. However, he began keen on what caused the pollution on the river near the cattle after he witnessed the cattle himself. His observation led to the large corporation that produces dangerous waste around its factory, DuPont. Years by years, Rob and his co-workers found out what really cause the hazardous waste and struggling to sue DuPont.

This movie narrates years of process done by Rob to investigate impact of the water pollution and find a proof that would make DuPont compensate the damaged. The process includes discussing with chemistry expert and finding out documents of previous similar cases. At some point we would relearn chemistry too when finding out the chemicals used by the factory, and a little history about the company that produced teflon and where they got the inspiration. In addition, we also would see repeating court scene.

The social setting of this movie also developed well when illustrating the process of the story. We could see a TV aired the US election result, and the technology shown at the movie also changes based on its timeline. In the other hand, the movie also illustrates how big DuPont company is and its contribution to the state. We’d also made infuriated when the company campaign the safe usage of the household appliance to restore its image towards citizen.

This movie also contains drama involving Rob and people around him. When Rob became too obsessive to win the case, it makes his colleagues worry about his condition. His wife, casted by Anne Hathaway also had to manage the family needs by herself since Rob was involved in the case. Hence she hates when Rob isn’t available when she needs him, but she also can show her support for him when his colleague underestimate his effort. At the second half of the movie, we would also see how people who knows Rob reacts to him when the case is in stagnant. Overall the presence of people around Rob are helpful media to let Rob explains how he feels and what he discovered so far to general audiences. At some point of the movie, we may expect that any thrilling moment will happen and endanger Rob due to his job. However such thrill almost doesn’t exist. However the movie still give an inconclusive sub plot happened to the one who against DuPont.

This movie is based on the real world case handled by Robert Bilott. Therefore the phenomenon happened in this movie is really happened too, until now. It concludes with an astonishing statistic, the result of 7 years of medical research which need to known by everyone. The conclusion which makes us worry about our household appliances immediately, change our perception about teflon and its type of. The movie success in delivering its message.

The movie might not for everyone and is only told from Rob’s perspective. It doesn’t explore other party related with Rob’s investigation, e.g. what made the medical research took very long time. Hence I’d only give 7 of 10 score for this movie despite of its powerful message in the end.