Dark Waters review – Mark Ruffalo v big business in enraging drama
The shocking true story of how corporate corruption infected the water of a small town is brought to the screen in mostly effective form by Todd Haynes
At the end of Dark Waters, a dense, angry drama about the horrifying health effects of corporate negligence, it’s possible, and perhaps quite likely, to leave the cinema with complaints about the specifics of the film-making. Sometimes it pushes too much, sometimes not enough, a conventional procedural with undeniable flaws. But what’s entirely impossible as the credits roll, is to leave without a palpable sense of fury, a real world, off-screen outrage directed not just at a particular issue but at a particular company. It’s a film that works best as a two-hour assault on DuPont, a chemical company with toxic blood all over its hands.