Reviewed by Peter Calder
A Civil Action ****
Cast: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy
Director: Steven Zaillian
Rating: M
Arriving unpreviewed and without the fanfare its star would normally command, this "true story" promised little but delivers a lot.
Zaillian, whose Searching For Bobby Fischer was a film of rare class and who also
wrote Schindler's List and Patriot Games, takes the story of a personal injury lawyer who discovers his humanity and makes of it a morally complicated and oddly moving tale which confounds all our expectations.
High-living ambulance-chaser Jan Schlichtmann is approached by a group of small-town parents convinced their children were killed by a contaminated water supply. He turns down the case as impossible to prove but changes his mind when he discovers the defendant is the subsidiary of a corporation with bottomless pockets.
We can see from a mile off the arc of the story to come (good guys triumph in courtroom drama over heartless industrialists), but working from Schlichtmann's story as recorded by Jonathan Harr, Zaillian has something else in mind. What emerges is a film which avoids all the easy payoffs and is deeply satisfying as a result.
Travolta, who's made a career out of playing one-speed types, doesn't always have the emotional range to capture the subtleties of Schlichtmann's metamorphosis, but the storyline, full of twists and turns, sustains the interest admirably.
And the supporting performances are extraordinary. Macy is a memorably anxious bean-counter of Schlichtmann's small law firm and the perennially deft and understated Robert Duvall is outstanding as a corporate lawyer who conceals his icy ruthlessness under a veneer of folksy mannerism.
Something special.
