THE AISLE SEAT - "A CIVIL ACTION"
by Mike McGranaghan
About a year ago, I bought a copy of the book "A Civil Action" by Jonathan Harr. It was around 500 pages long, and it took me forever to read, but I have to say it was one of the most compelling books I've ever come across. Harr did an expert job of detailing a monumental trial in which he had fortuitous access to all the key players. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the book was that it wasn't your garden-variety legal tale. Because it was a true story, there was not a picture-perfect happy ending. In fact, the book wasn't about the little guy taking on the system so much as it was about the ways justice is manipulated on both sides, and the real focus of a trial can get lost amid the desire to win.
When I heard that Harr's book was going to be turned into a movie, I thought it was a dubious idea. The potential existed for the truth to be changed in favor of easily digestible, sentimental Hollywood pap. Fortunately, A Civil Action has been written and directed by Steven Zaillian, undeniably one of the smartest, most talented people in the movie business today (he won the Best Screenplay Oscar for Schindler's List and wrote/directed Searching for Bobby Fischer). Zaillian retains the things that made the book so engrossing, despite having to pear down a dense, complicated story into a two-hour movie.
The film begins in the town of Woburn, Mass. where a staggering number of kids have contracted leukemia and died. Many in town suspect the local drinking water has been contaminated by two companies - the Riley tannery and the W.R. Grace Co. One woman, Anne Anderson (Kathleen Quinlan), has already lost her little boy. She contacts a lawyer named Jan Schlictmann (John Travolta), who is supposedly handling the case but has not actually done anything. Schlictmann initially thinks the case is worthless. He's a personal injury lawyer and doesn't see anything lucrative about it. One day, though, he discovers that the companies are very profitable. One of them is even a division of Beatrice foods.
Suddenly, there is someone with deep pockets to compensate the families for their losses. Further investigation turns up some employees willing to testify that a chemical called TCE was dumped on the ground behind the companies. Schlictmann becomes obsessed with the case, ordering everyone in his firm to work on it. Before long, the firm runs low on money and the business manager (William H. Macy) has to take drastic measures to keep it afloat. Schlictmann, meanwhile, dukes it out in court where he goes up against a crafty lawyer named Facher (Robert Duvall). Facher is a genius of an attorney, the kind of guy who doesn't just want to win, he wants to destroy his opponent. Facher's defense: How can anyone prove that the chemical seeped down into the town's water supply?
A Civil Action works for a lot of reasons, the first being that it is a true story. The old cliche - "They couldn't make this stuff up" - is true. The court case was lengthy, expensive, and it nearly cost Jan Schlictmann his sanity (so says the book's jacket). You wouldn't think a story about contaminated drinking water would be so riveting, but it is. There's a lot at stake for everyone involved, and a lot of unpredictable things happen (I'll refrain from going into too much detail because you really do have to see it for yourself). Perhaps most compelling, though, is the idea that this personal injury lawyer is working two angles: he wants justice for the family and a big payday for his firm. At one point, Facher tells him, "This case stopped being about the children the minute it entered the legal system." That may just be the theme of the movie.
The performances are solid and Oscar-worthy. Travolta is the perfect choice to play the slick, single-minded attorney. I suspect that Jan Schlictmann is not a bad guy in real life; he got caught up in something bigger than himself and was swallowed by it. Travolta doesn't play him as a shyster, either. He captures the humanity of a man who wants to do the right thing without knowing exactly what the right thing is. I was also amazed by Duvall, who portrays Facher with a quiet, deadly intelligence. He seems harmless - even sweetly eccentric - at first, but inside is a fiercely competitive lawyer. Compare Duvall's work here with his work in The Apostle for real amazement. You almost wouldn't think it's the same actor. Duvall manages to change his speech and mannerisms for each role, which is why he's one of the most enduring performers we have.
I think A Civil Action effectively conveys the feel and poignancy of Jonathan Harr's book. Some of the things have been vastly simplified for big screen portrayal (the judge in the real case came off as blatantly biased against Schlictmann, for instance) but they are done to ease the translation into a different medium. My only criticism is that the film never captures the sheer oddity of the case itself. Every time it seemed like it was dead, something happened that brought it roaring back to life, time and again. (Reading the book, it was almost as though the souls of those dead children kept pushing the case forward, no matter what.) Still, the movie does get across all the cynicism of Harr's book - the sense that the legal world is out of balance and that if anyone's got to pay, it's going to be the victims.
(
1/2 out of four)
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