“He was willing to risk his job, his family, for a stranger, who needed his help.“
That’s what Robert Billott, a corporate defense attorney, who took a chance on helping out the little guy, a farmer with a dying farm, and ultimately opened up one of the biggest investigations of the 90’s and 00’s that America has ever seen.
The Focus Features film, Dark Waters delves into this investigation beginning in 1996 with a farmer who seeks out the help of an environmental lawyer who ends up in a nearly two decade investigation to figure out just what is causing all the deaths and deformations of a large portion of the human population in Parkersville, West Virginia.
The film stars Mark Ruffalo as Robert Billott and one can see instantly why he was cast as he uses the same great techniques and emotions as a previous film, in which he won best supporting actor in the Oscar Winning film, Spotlight. Now he is taking the same investigative approach from that movie and applying it to his real life portrayal of Robert Billott.
Additionally the film stars Anne Hathaway and though the film is centered around that of her husband, one might add, Hathaway does an exceptional job in portraying a housewife and the term that comes to my mind, she definitely knows how to “stand by her man”. She does so in an elegant way that even when she doesn’t understand quite what he’s fighting for, the audience is sure she is not going to leave for any reason.
The film, delves into some scary truths and does so in a way that leaves the audience wondering how can the government be hiding this, however there is no doom and gloom to the ending as the film does end on a uplifting hope, one of that the real life Robert Billott is still fighting for the little guy against the industry that threatened water safety for so many years.
Dark Waters came out theater beginning November 27, 2019 and will be expanding its showing this weekend. See it in theaters and learn the truth that haunts us all.