A CIVIL ACTION
There are entire websites on the Internet full of jokes like that, about
those personal injury lawyers whose TV ads promise results or no fee. In
writer/director Steven Zaillian's A Civil Action, John Travolta plays
one — Boston attorney Jan Schlichtmann, a bottom-feeder who grows a
conscience. But in Zaillian's outlandish story line, Jan grows a little
too much conscience for his own good. And a little too much to be believed.
Based on a true story by Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action features
fine acting by some of the best in the business. Travolta turns in another
good performance as the wealthy, conceited lawyer who lives on other people's
misery, but like his Jack Stanton character in Primary
Colors, has more heart than he or we give him credit for. Robert
Duvall, whom I have never seen do a poor job, is again exquisitely subtle
as Jerome Facher, the experienced "big dog" attorney Jan goes
up against. And William H. Macy, whose face is appearing in more and more
of the best films, adds his nervous manner to the proceedings as Jan's increasingly
desperate accountant.
The film begins with a voiceover of Jan describing what kinds of clients
are more profitable than others. A seriously injured middle-aged white man,
for instance, is more "valuable" than a dead child. By contrast,
the people in the small town of Woburn, Massachusetts, are the least profitable.
They've had several children die of leukemia. They think it has something
to do with the town's bad-tasting water supply, but they don't know who
if anyone is contaminating it. However, when Jan travels there to turn down
their petition for a class action suit, he sees an old tannery operating
on the riverside, dumping waste materials into the water. Then he notices
the Beatrice Foods logo on one of the vehicles. Cha-ching.
Jan decides to take up the cause, since Beatrice is one of the richest
conglomerates in the U.S. But somewhere along the line, his gold-mine case
turns into something more for him, and his sense of justice outgrows his
pocketbook.
This movie is a fascinating look at the justice system from the bottom-feeder's
perspective, very much along the same lines as Francis Coppola's The Rainmaker (1997). We all want to believe
that our case could be the one that turns the money-grubbing stereotype
personal injury lawyer into a crusader for true justice.
My only real problem is with the script. It becomes a little outlandish
when Jan runs his company completely into the ground amid generous settlement
offers, simply because he wants to show that he "can't be bought."
Being bought, according to his coldly mercenary opening soliloquy, is exactly
what he is in business for. Also, I find it hard to swallow that his partners
(played by Tony Shalhoub and Zeljko Ivanek) would go so far as to mortgage
their homes to continue trying the case they didn't want to try in the first
place. I'm sure the real Jan Schlichtmann took quite a loss with this case,
but I doubt he had his employees hocking their gold kugerrands to pay the
company's bills.
A Civil Action features excellent acting and a compelling story, but suffers from the same flaw as so many other true stories brought to life on the silver screen. Thinking the plot too boring to be marketable, Hollywood spin doctors doctor it up — and accidently amputate its credibility. ****