November 25, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Drama lacking in ‘Civil Action’> Film, Travolta’s acting don’t live up to hype

Written and directed by Steven Zaillian. Based on the book by Jonathan Harr. Running time: 118 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for language).

Not to be uncivilized, but Steven Zaillian’s film adaptation of Jonathan Harr’s best-selling book, “A Civil Action,” is hardly worth the trumped-up hype it’s been receiving in the press.

The film is not great, not gripping, not a cinematic triumph, just as John Travolta’s uneven performance as the greedy, personal-injury lawyer Jan Schlichtmann is not the Oscar-worthy star turn some critics have been hailing it to be.

To be sure, “A Civil Action” is long and passionless, timid where it should have been ignited by rage and — ultimately — nowhere near as good as the book on which it’s based.

At its core, “A Civil Action” is the true story of an eight-year wrongful death suit Schlichtmann filed against W.R. Grace & Co. and Beatrice Foods in the 1980s. The case? Schlichtmann accused Grace and Beatrice of knowingly dumping toxic chemicals in the Woburn, Mass., water supply. The chemicals, spilled from a tannery, allegedly caused the deaths of several children and one adult from leukemia.

The case, naturally compelling and ripe with drama, made for a terrific book that won the National Book Award because it unmasked the inner workings of the law while also putting a human face on Schlichtmann, the lawyers who helped him, and the families whose personal losses were at the heart of it all.

But the film, which starts well and offers a good performance by Robert Duvall as a seasoned lawyer, has different ideas, none of which work as well as those in the book. Whereas the book wasn’t steeped in cliches, the film is absolutely reliant on how well we know our cliches, particularly in how the families are portrayed. We’ve seen every one of these sad, gray faces before — usually in better television movies. Instead of allowing the faces to emerge as individuals with real pain, real anger, real emotions (the appearance of Kathleen Quinlan is the one notable exception, but even she is wasted), director Zaillian blurs them together in silent heartbreak, thus robbing his film of the emotional impact it needs.

Further compounding the film’s problems is Travolta, who is incapable of nuance and thus unable to bring to the role what it demands: subtlety. He is playing a ruthless lawyer supposedly softened and changed by the humbling experiences of a dirty trial, yet his face — a tight-lipped, stoic mask marked by hard eyes — never softens. If this man has been brought to deeper understanding, Travolta is incapable of relaying it.

All of this brings us to the film’s real problem, which deals with our own expectations. After the O.J. Simpson trial and Zippergate, and now with the impeachment of our president, we’ve become an audience used to high drama in the courtroom, strong personalities clashing, real life in the riveting throes of justice. And those qualities, unfortunately, are something “A Civil Action” just doesn’t have.

Grade: C-

Video of the Week

“Out of Sight”

Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Written by Scott Frank, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Running time: 123 minutes. Rated R (for language, adult themes, some strong violence).

Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” takes the phrase “Lights! Camera! Action!” and changes it rather smartly to “Charm! Charisma! Clooney!” Yes, Clooney, as in George, as in the television show “E.R.,” as in the abysmal films “Dusk Till Dawn” and “Batman and Robin,” as in “You’ll never work in this town again if you don’t choose better projects!” as in — well, you get the picture.

Fortunately for Clooney — and for us — director Soderbergh saw a rosier picture. He saw Clooney’s talent, his limited yet workable talent, and knew that with the right script, the right cast, the right lighting and the right director, Clooney could shine. He was right. In “Out of Sight,” Soderbergh’s very good, very well-written film about a charismatic bank robber who literally charms the pants off U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), Clooney is eminently watchable, shaking off his failures and rising to a significant cinematic challenge. He succeeds, particularly in his scenes opposite Lopez, which are so smoldering, so genuinely sexy, they smack of the sexual tension Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint possessed in “North by Northwest.”

Yes, “North by Northwest.” Not a bad film to be compared with, but then “Out of Sight” comes from the mind of Elmore Leonard, the indispensable Elmore Leonard, whose work is so slick, so unique, so red-hot cool, it’s never, ever out of mind.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear each Monday in the NEWS. Each Thursday on WLBZ’s “News Center 5:30 Today,” he reviews what’s new and worth renting in video stores.


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