Dark Waters

First Hit: An excellent portrayal of corporate malfeasance and arrogance, finally getting its comeuppance.

Robert Bilott (Mark Ruffalo), a corporate attorney, is a thorough pragmatic defender of corporations. He’s just made partner in his firm and is a powerful asset to the company because he’s so good at his work.

During an important meeting, he’s interrupted by Wilber Tennent (Bill Camp) and friend who come from a farm in Parkersburg, West Virginia. They come to see Bilott because Roberts’s grandmother, “Grammy,” is a friend of Tennent. They hand Bilott a box full of videotapes explaining that no local Parkersburg lawyer will help them with the problem of their cattle dying. They believe the animals are dying because the town’s largest employer, Dupont, is polluting the water with chemicals from their facility.

Bilott tries to deter Tennent and not get involved, but Tennent’s plea knags at him, so he visits his Grammy, verifies she knows Tennent and then drives to Tennent’s farm. When Wilbur shows him his field full of buried cows, “190 of them,” he realizes there is a problem.

Although Bilott’s firm doesn’t have Dupont as a corporate client, they are reluctant to take on a nonpaying client that is going to end up suing Dupont as it will hurt their reputation with their own corporate clients.

However, Tom Terp (Tim Robbins), Bilott’s boss, supports Robert continuing his investigation even though his client cannot pay. There is a great scene when all the partners convene to hear and discuss Bilott’s work.

Finally, Dupont sends over all the discovery information that Bilott had requested, and it is massive. Hundreds of boxes of memos, reports, and other documentation. Being a team of one, dutifully Robert sits down on the floor and begins categorizing each document by year and subject. This is a great scene because it cements Robert’s commitment to do the right thing no matter what it takes.

His years of research comes up with proof that Dupont knew that they were poisoning people and animals through the creation, use of, and byproducts from POFA (C8), a chemical creation used in Teflon© the non-stick coating that everyone was using. C8 is one of those chemicals that cannot be broken down by nature, let alone the human body and therefore it stays in the body and slowly causes various types of cancer.

The film takes us through this story as it develops over the years of difficult lonely hard work on Bilott’s part. The filmmakers did a great job of showing the passage of time by giving the audience quick glimpse of his three boys growing up in front of him. He barely interacts with them because he’s so clearly focused on this one case, this man is all in.

In the meantime, because of the court's slow processes, Dupont’s putting roadblocks at every turn, and the slowness of a medical testing company that was reviewing over sixty thousand blood tests, people were continuing to be poisoned and die from being exposed to C8.

We watch as the stress of doing the right thing for his client requires him to take reductions in pay because he’s spending all his time on this case that has no paying client. We watch him feel the pain while he watches his clients deteriorate because of the poison.

His wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway) tries to keep their family together, showing undying support, even as she sees the deterioration of her husband because of the deeply committed compassion to see this lawsuit through for the people who are being harmed.

One thing the film made sure of was the darkness of this subject. Every scene is dark in color or filled with gray skies.

Ruffalo was excellent as the committed attorney who gave up almost everything, including his life, to find and fight for the truth. Hathaway was superb as his supportive wife attempting to keep their family together while Robert fights for the truth. Robbins was influential as Bilott’s boss and senior managing partner of their law firm, showing support for Robert on this long trail to truth. Camp was terrific as the driven farmer and rancher who committed his life to making sure Dupont was charged for their crimes against his community. Victor Garber, as Phil Donnelly, a senior executive in Dupont, was supreme in his portrayal of being the mouthpiece of corporate malfeasance. Mare Winningham, as Darlene Kiger, a Parkersburg resident, was fantastic. It was lovely to see her on the screen again. Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote a powerfully detailed script. Todd Haynes did a great job of creating the feel corporate malfeasance and the difficulty of making wealthy companies pay for their crimes against humanity.

Overall: This is an excellent story about the power of perseverance.

The Seagull

First Hit: An OK version of an Anton Chekhov play.

Unrequited love, that is what this film and story is about. There are amusing ways it is shown. The matriarch of this story, Irina (Annette Bening) is a publicity hound and loves the adoration she receives from the audiences she performs in front of. She has a younger lover, a playwright, named Boris Trigorin (Corey Stoll) who is weak of spirit and Irina’s commanding strength controls him.

While visiting Irina’s summer home and home of her brother Sorin (Brian Dennehy), Boris falls for Nina (Saoirse Ronan), which makes Irina’s son Konstantin (Billy Howle) jealous because he loves Nina. Konstantin spends most of his time trying to get approval as a writer and attention from his mother Irina.

Masha (Elisabeth Moss) the daughter of property caretakers Polina and Shamrayev (Mare Winningham and Glenn Fleshler respectively), longs for Konstantin but he cannot stand her. Masha is being pursued by a poor teacher and she cannot stand him.

Another unrequited relationship is Polina longing for Doctor Dorn (Jon Tenney) but he wants no part of her.

This is the entire basis of this story and film. It’s appeal is that almost everyone has had this sort of unrequited love in their life.

However, so much at the same time is also the weakness of this film. It is almost not real.

Benning is strong as the ego-based actress that needs to believe she’s the best looking person in the room and is lauded by everyone in Russia. Ronan is divine as Nina. She is one of the best parts of this film and her confusion about her love for Boris is wonderful. Dennehy is good as the brother that is ill. Howle is good as the son who is filled with sadness and pain of rejections from both his mother and Nina. Moss is particularly funny and dramatic. Especially when she’s drinking at the table with Boris and says, all women drink, I just do it openly. Stoll is very good as the subservient man to Irina and his short-lived lust for Nina. Winningham is strong as the caretaker’s wife who also lusts after someone other than her husband. Flesher is especially good as a man that doesn’t want to be ordered around by Irina. Tenney is strong as the doctor who wants someone and rejects someone else. Stephen Karam wrote a strong version of this Chekhov play. Michael Mayer directed this drama with a sure hand.

Overall: I think this story is relatable in this format and overall it worked.

Brothers

First Hit: A strong film about family and the effects war can have on our subsequent actions.

Tobey MaGuire plays Sam, a career soldier and captain, married to Grace (played by Natalie Portman). They have two darling daughters Maggie and Isabelle (played by Taylor Geare and Bailee Madison respectively).

The film begins by showing a happy family but with the impending sadness that Sam will soon be heading back to Afghanistan. Prior to Sam leaving, he goes to a prison to pick up his brother Tommy (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who is being let out for some unknown crime.

Tommy is the bad boy of the family and their dad Hank (played by Sam Shepard) makes it known that Sam is the preferred son while Tommy is the weak black sheep. There is a dinner scene with all of them around the table which sets the tone of the family angst with the step mom Elise (played by Mare Winningham) attempting to keep the peace.

Sam goes to Afghanistan, gets shot down and is believed to be dead. Tommy, finds it in his heart to start taking care of Grace, Maggie and Isabelle. Tommy finds new joy in his life playing with Maggie and Isabelle.

It is clearly Gyllenhaal and Portman’s film at this point as you see the interplay of how Tommy starts to believe he has some value to his brother’s family while Grace begins to see the good side of Tommy. There is a moment when Grace and Tommy kiss but both of them realize immediately that nothing else can happen.

Meanwhile Sam was captured by the enemy, not killed but is tortured by his captors. In hopes of seeing his family again he ends up doing an unforgivable deed. When he is rescued, we clearly see that he has become a different man with his soul in a battle between his actions and his beliefs. In the end this film is about family and love.

The acting was generally superb all around the horn. However standouts include Madison as the older daughter when she shares her fear of her father, Portman for being able hide her absolute beauty and to have us see the character, and McGuire for showing me he is something other than Spiderman. I think the film could have had more in-depth probing of how the brothers became so different and how their dad hurt them while growing up. We are given a quick glimpse when Shepard tells McGuire about his turn in Vietnam and how it changed him, but that’s all.

Overall: This is a good film which could have been stronger because all the elements were available and the actors' first rate.

Swing Vote

First Hit: This was much better than I thought it would be.

My fear of seeing this film was that there seemed to be a high probability of it being a dumb put on or a tongue-in-cheek farce. The previews didn’t do much to dispel this thought or perception.

However, I was gladly wrong. My first concern was how could 1 vote make a difference? The filmmakers did a reasonable job of explaining how an event like this could happen. Not that I fully bought the premise but it was enough to make be move through my internal hurdle.

The second concern was would the actors play this as sort of a fluff piece and not take the premise seriously, especially Kevin Costner who needed to play someone who isn’t very bright and has no inclination to learn?

However, again I was surprised. Kevin (as Bud), plays a middle aged man who works in an egg factory sorting eggs. He is raising his daughter Molly (played by Madeline Carroll) who is smart as a whip and is running the family show.

She takes care of Kevin and wants him to care more about everything and especially his right and social responsibility to cast his vote. He promises to show up, but gets laid off that day, gets drunk, and fails to show up at the polling booth where Molly is patiently waiting for him. As the time for the poll reaches closing time, she decides to sneak in, get his ballot, and vote for him.

However, the voting machine gets unplugged at the critical moment and therefore his (her) vote isn’t registered. Because his single vote will decide the election, he gets 10 days to revote.

The incumbent President and his challenger come to his town and do what they can to persuade his upcoming vote.

Kevin Costner pulls this off. He is excellent as Bud and doesn’t minimize or over play the role. Madeline Carroll, playing Molly is equally outstanding and I trust her good work here will create additional acting roles for her. The combination of them together was excellent. Both Dennis Hopper (The democratic candidate) and Kelsey Grammer (the incumbent republican president) are good in their roles and show how politicians bend their principals to win. Lastly, seeing Mare Winningham (as Molly's mother) was wonderful and her 5 minutes of screen time was a plus.

Overall: This was an enjoyable funny poignant film because we are in the midst of a political presidential race.