Dark Waters

Dark Waters follows Robert Bilott, a corporate defence attorney in Cincinnati who is approached by farmers from West Virginia. They believe a nearby DuPont plant has been dumping toxic waste that is ruining their land and poisoning their livestock. What begins as a request for help becomes a long legal struggle against the chemical company, one that puts Bilott's career, his marriage and his health under strain as he tries to establish what the corporation knew and when it knew it. The film is based on a true story.

Todd Haynes directed the film, which came after Wonderstruck in 2017 and before The Velvet Underground in 2021, making it the eighth of the ten features he has directed. The screenplay is by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Mario Correa and Nathaniel Rich, and Mark Ruffalo, who plays Bilott, produced alongside Christine Vachon and Jeff Skoll. The cast includes Anne Hathaway as Sarah Bilott, Tim Robbins as Tom Terp, Bill Pullman as Harry Dietzler, Bill Camp as Wilbur Tennant and Victor Garber as Phil Donnelly.

The film was released in November 2019 and runs 127 minutes. Made for about 20 million dollars, it took roughly 23 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. It has a score of about 7.3 out of 10 from 236 critics' reviews, while audiences rate it 7.6 out of 10 on IMDb from 121,000 votes and 7.5 out of 10 on TMDB from 2,619 votes, so viewers and critics are closely aligned.