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There’s a long and enduring tradition in Hollywood for the class action films. In theory, it’s a logical topic for a certain kind of prestige cinema. They’re more talkative and heavy on character and theme. Usually socially conscious and, more often than not, circled around a known and familiar villain: the perils that emerge from the absence of regulation.

Class actions in films are represented by a solicitor who dedicates their life to the peril of their health and personal lives to do the right thing. The good thing. The thing no other lawyer is ready to do. Career be damned, these are stories about the best of the best in the profession – prolific, dedicated good people who understand they’re fighting an uphill battle against a faceless monster. But fight it they must, for their entire personality hinges on the prolific question. Because they know they can’t save the world but, like Moby Dick on the bench instead of a whaler, they face the proverbial white whale.

Erin Brockovich is probably the genre’s most recent title. Spotlight, maybe? Lawyers and investigative journalists share similar DNA after all. But Todd Haynes’ Dark Waters from 2019 may be the most earnest of them all.

Based on a New York Times article, Dark Waters is the dramatised account of lawyer Robert Bilott’s (Mark Ruffalo) case against chemical giant Dupont.

A successful corporate defence lawyer, Bilott’s career is on the rise when he comes across an issue in his hometown – a local farmer claiming his cattle are dying because Dupont poisoned the local water supply. Bilott sees this as an opportunity to help a potential high-paying client and gain the trust of the firm’s senior partner, Tom Turp (Tim Robbins), but it doesn’t take long to find out how involved Dupont is in covering up the dangers of one of their main chemicals, used all in kitchens all over the world.

Bilott is a sympathetic hero. From the start, he’s portrayed as an outliner in the world he inhabits. “I won’t tell anyone you’re from West Virginia,” jokes Turp with a hint of truth. Haynes’ strength is in connecting all the socio-economic elements together. He’s not just interested in showing how a big faceless corporation can get away with ruining the lives of regular folk; he needs to show how that differentiation between social statuses is permeated in society. It frames society into defined social structures of which Bilott is seen as an outliner; maybe an intruder who doesn’t stem from the same privilege.

Knowing Haynes, this is by design. He’s a filmmaker who observes the notion of privilege and the value of stepping outside of one’s bubbles. Even when that element is not central to the main story, it still lingers in the background. Be it racial privilege (Far From Heaven), facing one’s demons to break the socially imposed mould of art (I’m Still Here) or the pain we endure to fit the demanded standard – like in his groundbreaking short Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story where he tells the story of The Carpenters singer’s battle with anorexia using Barbie dolls.

In a way, Dark Waters is a different film for Haynes. More solemn and less colourful. He lingers on the genre’s aesthetic, like what Spotlight did a year before – incidentally also with Ruffalo throwing his best delivery, indignantly shouting “THEY KNEW”. There’s a level of public service here, like Haynes wants to make something quickly recognisable so the message reaches more people. He doesn’t reinvent the wheel, as he has in many other films, but presents in a highly competent way, showing that he can play that game easily if he wants.

Haynes doesn’t rely on metaphors like he usually does. He wants the audience to watch Bilott’s slow and seemingly futile endeavour. He wants us to understand that the only way for justice to reach the people who deserve it is through the tenacity of one man – consequences be damned. He sees him falling apart, being defeated, and rising up again. We see him convincing his wife and Senior Partner that this is a fight worth fighting, and when the film ends, we see him rolling up his sleeves again as he gets ready to face an indestructible monster.

This all works due to Ruffalo’s measured performance. Part of the enjoyment is seeing his stoicism slowly breaking apart into desperation. For most of the film he’s a quiet and reliable man, but it takes a strong and confident actor to sell showing the dark night of that soul without falling into cheap tricks.

There are two ways of seeing Dark Waters’ message. A cynical person may see it as an admission that the law is inaccessible to the common folk, that in spite of the stubbornness of a well-meaning lawyer, the legal system is skewed towards the side with unlimited funds. A cynical person may say that. The optimist will notice that it only takes one stubborn, well-meaning lawyer to act on change. The twist is that Haynes is the latter.

Verdict: 4 out of 5
For everyone who believes the law is not an impenetrable fortress controlled by the affluent and powerful, this is straightforward and effective filmmaking with a strong message to complement it.

Tickets to the Law Society of NSW Annual Conference on 10-11 October are available here.