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Review by Susan Granger
2½ stars out of 4
Adapted from Jonathan Harr's 1995 non-fiction best-seller, this
is a deadly serious legal thriller - it's also a deadly bore. John
Travolta sleepwalks through the role of Jan Schlictmann, an
egotistical, high-stakes, personal-injury attorney who suddenly
becomes virtuous and loses his custom-made shirt when he sues two
corporations for dumping toxic waste which may have polluted the water
supply and, in turn, caused cancer-related deaths in eight families in
a small town outside of Boston. When we first meet Schlictmann, he's
driving a sleek black Porche and reveling in minor celebrity. Guesting
on a radio talk show, he's confronted by a client (Kathleen Quinlan)
whose letters he has ignored. She's the distraught mother of a young
boy who died of leukemia and represents seven other children in one
neighborhood who met a similar fate. But when Schlictmann discovers
that two major companies (W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods) may be the
culprits, he gleefully proclaims, "This is a gold mine!" Greedily, he
accept the case which, eventually, drives his firm into
bankruptcy. Written and directed by Steven Zaillian, who wrote
"Schindler's List," it's issue-oriented, earnest and decent, filled
with righteous indignation about social injustice. Unfortunately, it's
not very entertaining - except for Robert Duvall's superbly nuanced
performance as a crafty corporate counsel, Sydney Pollock's turn as a
snobbish executive, and an uncredited cameo by Kathy Bates. Why does
it miss the mark? Because we have no emotional investment in
Travolta's morally ambiguous character. On the Granger Movie Gauge of
1 to 10, "A Civil Action" is a bleak, stilted 6, proving that no good
deed goes unpunished.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
