BEFORE: In addition to my movies, I've been trying to catch up on TV shows, and I'm about 4 months behind. Usually the summer would be a good time to catch up (remember the good old days when the networks shut down for the summer?) by watching what I call "smart TV" - shows like "Law & Order", "CSI", "Mythbusters" - leftover from March and April, but I keep getting bogged down in "stupid TV" - like "Wipeout", early auditions on "Last Comic Standing", and trying to determine if America does, indeed, have talent. Plus a number of shows I enjoy, like "Rescue Me", "Top Chef", and "Futurama" have just STARTED their seasons, but I'm going to have to just tape those shows and watch them in September - so, essentially, I'll never really catch up.
Next week, I'll start a chain of "cops & robbers" movies that will take me clear through to mid-August - so I'll be watching cop movies and cop TV shows all summer long. Let's hope tonight's film is more like "Law & Order" than "Wipeout".
THE PLOT: The families of children who died sue two companies for dumping toxic waste: a tort so expensive to prove, the case could bankrupt their lawyer.
AFTER: From the world of small-time filmmaking to the inner workings of a small-time Boston law film. The theory I've formed on John Travolta, based solely on the last 6 films I've watched, is that he tends to play a character trying to do the right thing - and often the ONLY character in the film who seems to know what the right thing is. From investigating the murder in "General's Daughter" to the earwitness in "Blow Out", even the imprisoned cop disguised as a master criminal in "Face/Off" (OK, I guess that only counts for half, since for half that film he was playing the criminal disguised as a cop...) Maybe "Broken Arrow" doesn't fit the pattern, either...
But here he plays Jan Schlichtmann, a personal-injury lawyer who leading a civil suit/crusade against companies that have histories of dumping their waste and contaminating the wells of Woburn, MA. But he's fighting outside his weight class, since one of the defendants has an experienced lawyer (Robert Duvall) who's probably forgotten more about the law than he knows to begin with.
I kept waiting for the scene where he wins the case by inviting the opposing council to a sit-down meeting, then he serves them the water from the contaminated wells as refreshment - but that never happened. I think that famous scene appeared in a different film...
The movie progresses at a snail's pace (see, it's called a MOVIE, it's supposed to, you know, MOVE...), but in its defense, I'm guessing a lot of trials move pretty slowly. Still, it's the filmmakers' job to keep it interesting. But the film seems to run out of steam, at about the same time that the case does.
And as a theme during the closing credits, someone chose "Take Me To the River" by the Talking Heads. Really? Who thought that was appropriate for a movie about contaminated water?
Also starring John Lithgow (last seen in "Blowout" with Travolta), Tony Shalhoub (last seen in "Primary Colors" with Travolta), William H. Macy (last heard in "Everyone's Hero"), Zeljko Ivanek (last seen as Bobby Kennedy in "The Rat Pack"), Kathleen Quinlan (last seen in "Airport '77"), Dan Hedaya (last seen in "A Night at the Roxbury"), James Gandolfini (last seen in "The Last Castle"), Stephen Fry, and look, it's Daniel Von Bargen again (3rd time this week!) Also, cameos from Sydney Pollack and Kathy Bates (last seen in "The Day the Earth Stood Still").
RATING: 5 out of 10 hostile witnesses
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