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Imagine making a discovery that threatens your life; Dark Waters tells the disturbing true story of a man whose discovery throws him in trouble.

Dark Waters follows corporate attorney Robert Bilot (Mark Ruffalo) as he takes a case that turned him from fighting for chemical companies to fighting against them. Along a journey of several years, Bilot risks his career, family life, reputation, and even his sanity, trying to uncover the dark secret that a chemical company has been keeping from the world. Even if he finds the truth, can he prove it? Can he survive long enough to make it public?

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You may think that the scenario is somewhat similar to that of Erin Brockovich, but this feature is entirely different.

While Erin Brockovich had a lightness that eased its characters’ struggles, Dark Waters doesn’t have that luxury. It offers an in-your-face realism that leaves sugar coating far behind. The mood combines a sense of desperation along a journey to find the truth, an inspiring relentless advocating for the truth, and a hard-hitting realness of the power of major corporations trying to bury the facts. It all blends to create an experience that will have you thinking about it for some time after it is over.

However, Dark Waters’ major flaw is its plot flow and pace, as the feature’s second act slows right down, which is a detriment to keeping audiences interested. The film runs for just over two hours, and, even though it goes through multiple years, the impact of the events it tackles could have been much more profound had the feature’s pace been faster. Bilot’s obsessive behaviour, his struggles with his family, and even the long wait for new information in the case could have all been portrayed to show how the time did pass, without actually taking up so much time from the feature or the audience’s attention.

For the acting, Mark Ruffalo is likeable as a nice guy trying to do the right thing, but he is also believable as a desperate man fighting for his sanity in search for the truth, as well as an outraged citizen discovering a dark secret. Ruffalo is able to be kind, torn down, angry, and desperate in a subtle performance that gives the hero a realistic, humane form. Playing his wife, Anne Hathaway had a minimal role, which was quite disappointing, yet she managed to command the few scenes in which she made an appearance.

It is rare to see a film that is both realistic and interesting; Dark Waters, despite its slightly slow pace, is a disturbingly profound feature that deserves a watch.