Okay, here's the deal. I'd be a fool to try and tell you guys about stereotypes in movies. We all know them, we all laugh when we see them. I mean, exactly how many hookers with hearts of gold do you really think there are in this world? Or how about organized crime bosses that want to go straight? Or, my personal fave right now, the disillusioned cops that have to go outside the law to stop a bad guy? And, lest we forget, the bad guy that actually isn't so bad, and turns out to be good after all?
You get my point,. There's always gonna be the flavor of the month when it comes to lead characters in movies. I guess we have to add another one to the ever-growing list, though. One addition, with two sub-headings, to be honest about things. Lawyers are hot film topics right now. Two types of lawyers -- the evil lawyer who only functions for money, and the good lawyer who starts out money-hungry, but turns out to care more for his principles than payoffs. John Grisham is making out like a bandit using these "reborn" lawyer ideas, and there's a slew of others right behind him. I guess it was only a matter of time before the "lawyer fever" hit superstar level.
Everyone from Tom Cruise (The Firm) to Jim Carrey (Liar, Liar) to Matt Damon (The Rainmaker) has learned that a good-hearted lawyer can do wonders on a screen. Ford, Costner, Lange, Hackman, Redford, you name the mega-star, there's gonna be a lawyer in there somewhere. My Lord, even Cher pulled jury duty once, and solved the murder and saved her mute client. If Cher can do it, anybody can, right?
Gotta say, though, I never expected John Travolta to go the way of the bar. But, apparently, even ol' Johnny Boy his own self has had a hankerin' to be a lawyer. And his new movie, A Civil Action, he gets to be both stereotypes, moving from one to the other in a character evolution. Truth be told, though, it isn't John's idea that pushes this movie. It's some fine support and a nasty plot point that brings this movie to full-blown quality.
Travolta plays Jan Schlichtmann, a very successful personal injury lawyer. You know the type form the TV ads. "Are you hurt? Injured? Dead? Let us get you some money for your trouble." Well, one day, Schlichtmann is a guest on a radio talk show, bragging about the "good" he does for "common people", when he gets a caller who tells him he should come up to Woburn, Massachusetts. "Why don't you come up here and meet some of the people whose pain you feel?" she tells him.
The caller (Kathleen Quinlan) is the mother of a child that died of leukemia. Eleven other children have died of leukemia in Woburn over the past fifteen years, a statistical impossibility, unless some outside source is causing the disease. Schlichtmann goes to Woburn, and dances around formally accepting the case. That is, until he finds out that there are two corporations that are operating right next to the town's water supply. You can almost hear the "ka-ching" as the dollar signs appear, thanks to a simple threat of toxic waste contamination. In a voice-over, Schlichtmann says that the whole point of a lawsuit is to get the other side to settle. His belief is that only "people with something to prove" actually go to court. But, Schlichtmann won't settle. Something inside him won't allow it.
To court we go, just Schlichtmann and his partner, against a team of sharks representing the corporate world. The head shark here is Jerome Facher (Robert Duvall), an old pro at this sort of thing. Facher also happens to have everything Schlichtmann wants. He has the connections, he has the slick clients, but, most of all, he has the professional respect that an ambulance chaser like Schlichtmann will never have. The fight wages, one against the machine.
I can see fully why Johnny Boy chose a role like this. It has all the public appeal, the underdog against the corporate monster. It has character development a-plenty, as Schlichtmann goes from a quick-buck artist to an actual caring soul. Trouble is, John doesn't always work in a developing character. His best work, his shine, comes from fully developed characters, characters that are as rich and bodied as aged wine. These characters allow Travolta to show certain aspects of personality to each situation. Think of Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction, being impressed by hash bars and French Burger Kings, but bored by life-threatening scares and Eastern philosophy. Think of Jack Stanton in Primary Colors, tearing as he tells a story of his illiterate uncle, then shaking the completely literate uncle's hand five minutes later in the campaign office, and realizing with the main character that Stanton's beautiful, emotional story was complete bullsurf. Johnny plays the irony a lot better than he plays soulful. Not that he's bad here, mind you. He's very good. It just never hits home in sync. It's a little off, and even that little bit makes a difference.
Thankfully, though, director Steven Zaillian (Searching for Bobby Fischer) does not rest the whole story in Travolta's lap. He fills this movie with talented people who do some of their best work in supporting roles. Tony Shalhoub and the ever-expanding William H. Macy are wonderful as Travolta's partner and financial advisor. Macy in particular, provides some needed tension-breaker laughs as his boss's funds go south as he fights this war out of his own pocket. Film director Sydney Pollack is icy cool as one of the corporate vultures who works through a field of home-turf intimidation and pure steel nerves. One can only wish Pollack would act more. He's a very funny comedic actor, as seen in Tootsie as Michael/Dorothy's agent, and he's pretty well versed as a dramatic talent here. John Lithgow and Kathy Bates play the ends of the judicial spectrum as judges, with Lithgow gulping the set pieces and Bates intensifying her bid for a second Oscar, the one she started, incidentally, in Primary Colors.
There are only three words to describe Robert Duvall, though. The same three words I seem to use every time Duvall is onscreen. Oh. My. God....
Duvall is, in my folder, the best overall actor in the business. He can do more with twenty minutes on film than a lot of actors can do in two hours. If he's supporting, he can steal films like Apocalypse Now in a heartbeat. If he's the lead, he can mesmerize, whether it's a saddlehorn-tough Texas Ranger (Lonesome Dove), a die-hard Southerner who learns he's not exactly who he thought he was (A Family Thing), or an evangelist on a mission for the Lord (The Apostle). Here, as Schlichtmann's courtroom nemesis, he is just on another level. You cannot take your eyes off of him for a second, because, if you do, you will miss a lesson in Acting 101. His down-home manner, his easygoing slyness, it's all eye candy, because, as he's doing it, the audience knows, as the character knows, it's all just another act. Watching an actor act can be fascinating, but watching an actor like Duvall act can be magic, because, like a seasoned lawyer, there's as much in the subtlety as there is in the performance.
There's another point, though, that holds this film together, one that rarely gets pushed in these courtroom affairs. This story is based on a true story. These plants were slowly poisoning Woburn, Massachusetts. The lawyer, Schlichtmann, did indeed have a turn of heart from money to compassion. I will not jump on a soapbox here, but, as I watched this, I found myself time and time again thinking, "These people really don't care that they're killing other people." The effect of some fine acting, yes, but the fact of public knowledge proves the point. People in this town were dying, and the corporations didn't give a rip. Harsh reality slap, huh?
But, that being said, it'll be well worth your time to go see A Civil Action. It's not going to be a smiling-time dance movie, as we've learned to like from Travolta, but it is a bold attempt to try new approaches in his career. It may not work all the time, but the story and the other cast members make it a very good movie. Perfection with such a story might have been unachievable with any actor, but, for the most part, this is just about as good as it can get without being perfect.
Image copyright Touchstone Pictures.
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in for observation