Where international critics are falling over themselves to praise originality, wit and genius of South Korean cartoonish class divide drama (which I hated passionately), I heard absolutely nobody mention "Dark Waters" which came to my attention thanks to good, old fashioned trailer and its probably not exotic enough for critics to praise - after all, why even bothering with something topic, when we can write essays about brilliance of movie directors from Inner Mongolia and Eastern Islands. Well, I disliked "Parasite" very much and needed something to rekindle my love for cinema, so off I went to see "Dark Waters" in the very same week. Being cynical even to myself, I was prepared that I might like this movie simply because the narrative, style and acting that comes from the West might be closer to my sensibility - no matter how many clichés Hollywood throws at me, at least I can recognise the allusions and appreciate the references.
To my biggest surprise, it wasn't bad at all - to be honest, the audience was actually spellbound all trough the movie - either the Dutch audience is very polite (which they are) or the movie was genuinely gripping, but there was something about the subject and the acting that crossed over mere entertainment and entered the thought-provoking area, which exactly was the point. After all, the main actor Mark Ruffalo believed in this so much that he took a role as one of the producers behind this project. The subject itself is a mother of all conspiracy theories, them-against-us in this case big moneyed companies against little ordinary man on the street. Ruffalo is a lawyer somehow shoehorned into accepting ungrateful task to fight for a little man, with conglomerate mammoth on the other side. Remember Teflon? Ultra-modern material so irreplaceable in the kitchens? The one that turned out to be actually very harmful and carcenogene? Well, this is a story about how one man (in real life, lawyer Robert Bilott) fought tooth and nail against one of the world's largest corporations DuPont who had power, finances and prestige to sweep this unfortunate fact under the rug for decades. Make no mistake, people in DuPont knew that this is very harmful material (something called PFOA and maddeningly difficult to find, until Ruffalo discovers its chemical substance initially used as colour for tanks) - without going on too much into the plot, I can only say that the audience was deadly silent and focused all the way trough and we all left the cinema wondering what other chemicals we encounter on daily basis and is it actually possible at all to avoid the contamination? Of course, the movie stays with you for days and I found myself checking the facts on the internet long after I have seen the movie - it is thought provoking in the best sense, because its something that I couldn't shake off and just right now discovered that PFOA can still be found in microwave Popcorn for example. Than again, everything from the air that we breath to the water we drink is probably contaminated one way or the other, unless one lives in some far away mountains completely cut out from civilisation so tumours and cancers are our destiny until science finds out more about it. My feeling about the future of this planet and human race is very bleak and I am almost sure it will be all polluted, industrialised and future generations will fight wars over clean water and fresh air.
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