There are a few notable disappearing acts being performed in “Dark Waters,” a fact-based drama about the corporate lawyer who sued DuPont for, in essence, poisoning a West Virginia community with a chemical used to make Teflon. The most obvious one is undertaken by the film’s producer and star, Mark Ruffalo, who, as real-life Cincinnati attorney Rob Bilott, erases his movie-star persona beneath an unflattering haircut, cheap suit, bad posture and the ever-present pout of an avenging nebbish.
The second is by Bill Camp as Wilbur Tennant, the Parkersburg cattle farmer who first noticed that his cows were dying off in high numbers, and who sought the assistance of Bilott because Tennant knew the lawyer’s mother. We’re used to seeing Camp, one of the great unsung character actors, vanish inside a role, and here he does it again, delivering his lines with a gruff affect and intended thick accent that is unintelligible much of the time.
But perhaps the most superficially startling disappearing act is the one performed by director Todd Haynes, who brings a sort of aggressive stylelessness to a subject that initially seems a surprising choice for the director of the lavishly cinematic period pieces “Carol” and “Far From Heaven.”
But “Dark Waters” feels like the kind of issue film that almost anyone could have made. The issue, in this case, being not just about DuPont but the fight for stronger environmental protections against corporate malfeasance.
