"Eye-Opening" Dark Thriller on Netflix Has Everyone Rate It 10/10

Summary

• Netflix users have rediscovered a great thriller for 2019.
• It is a story based on true events that follows a lawyer's fight against corporate impunity.
• The movie has captivated audiences for its subject matter, acting and frankness.

At some point in our lives, each of us has been exposed to the idea of how much harm corporations can do. Of course, it is too naive to divide the world into clear-cut 'black' and 'white' as it is often portrayed in pop culture, but in the case of multinational corporations, history shows that all of this is far more than essentialist hyperbole.

Corporations, sometimes no less powerful and capitalized than some states, have shown their true colors time and time again, cynically seeking profit at any cost. Even if the price is the health and life of their own customers.

That's why feature films about corporations based on real events have a special value. Yes, sometimes documentaries reveal a much more objective view of the terrible truth, but let's be honest, the format of feature films allows to convey these or those ideas to the viewer much more effectively, thanks to artistic expressiveness, dramatization of true events and talented actors.

In this context, it is worth mentioning a 2019 thriller, also based on real events, which tells the story of a multi-year legal battle with the chemical company DuPont, after all the atrocities it inflicted on the environment and the inhabitants of West Virginia.

The movie was recently resurrected from the depths of oblivion by Netflix users, so why not check it out considering it boasts an star-studded cast including Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway?

An All-Star Legal Thriller Based on True Events

We are talking about a movie called Dark Waters. It was directed by Todd Haynes, and it seems to be the best thing that could have happened to a true story that just needed to be dramatized in order to be shown to the whole world. After all, no one is as brilliant as Haynes when it comes to biographical dramas or documentaries.

1998, Parkersburg, West Virginia. Local farmers began complaining about dead cattle. Under these circumstances, attorney Robert Bilott, played in the film by Mark Ruffalo, attempts to conduct an investigation, which leads him to the DuPont corporation, which, it turns out, was hiding the fact that it was using unregulated chemicals. As a result of the pollution, many of the town's residents developed serious illnesses and even cancer.

The story is based on a 2016 New York Times Magazine article, which told the story of how an ordinary corporate defense lawyer from Cincinnati managed to win a case against DuPont after they contaminated a West Virginia town with unregulated chemicals, following an excruciatingly arduous and years-long battle in the courts. The hero of the story himself published a memoir in 2019 titled Exposure.

In addition to Ruffalo, the film stars Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper and Bill Pullman.

What Are Critics and Audiences Saying about the Movie?

Critics and audiences alike have raved about the movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, for example, it has an impressive 89% rating from critics and an even more impressive 95% rating from audiences.

Viewers have commented on how evil but fair the film is, spending a great deal of time honoring the victims of unpunished corporate actions, but not a fraction of sympathy for the perpetrators.

In addition, the film has been repeatedly compared to the 2015 biopic Spotlight, directed by Tom McCarthy and also based in part on true events, which chronicles the years-long struggle of Boston Globe journalists against systemic child sex abuse by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.