A Civil Action (1998)
Director: Steven Zaillian Cast: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, Zeljko Ivanek, James Gandolfini Screenplay: Steven Zaillian Producers: Rachel Pfeffer, Robert Redford, Scott Rudin Runtime: 112 min. US Distribution: Touchstone/Buena Vista Rated PG-13: strong language
Copyright 1998 Nathaniel R. Atcheson
A film that is "Based on a true story" is problematic from the get-go: real life just isn't as interesting as the movies. Most of the things that happen in movies are not things that will ever happen in real life. Movies are great because they show us things we haven't seen before, things we may not have ever considered. A film that's "based on a true story" is likely to disappoint simply because the components of the story are probably too realistic to be cinematic.
A Civil Action is based on a true story. It's based on the true story of Jan Schlichtmann (John Travolta), a personal injury lawyer in a firm with two partners (Tony Shalhoub and Zeljko Ivanek). Jan is a cynical man; much of the early scenes are filled with a witty narration in which he explains the everyday procedures of winning cases and getting the most possible money from a settlement. (The first scene, in which a group of lawyers beg for a two-million dollar settlement after Jan shows the jury a child in a wheelchair is devilishly funny.)
Jan, however, decides to take a different kind of case: over a few years, several kids had died from leukemia in a small town called Woburn; now, one of the mothers (Kathleen Quinlan) is trying to get a lawyer to take their case against a local company who may be accidentally draining toxins into the city's drinking water. Jan discovers that the local company is owned by a much larger company, and so his motives for taking the case begin as a career move. Later, though, his morals change, and he sticks with the case, even though it takes years to discover that the millions of dollars that his firm sinks into the case are all wasted.
A Civil Action is one of the most frustrating films I've seen in months: here is a movie that begins as a funny, entertaining, cynical look into the way lawyers operate, and concludes as a muddled, partially sentimental morality tale with no climax and no real ending to speak of. It's made perfectly clear in the beginning that the film is based on a true story, but I think that in the interest of cinema the last thirty minutes should have been changed completely. It almost makes me mad to see a film with so much potential fizzle into a sloppy resolution.
After all, I usually find John Travolta deeply unlikable, but A Civil Action shows a side of him that I wouldn't mind seeing more often. It also has a fantastic supporting cast, a lot of sharp humor, and a direct, insightful narration on the practices of one particular personal injury lawyer. Director Steven Zaillian also does a good job with pacing and overall tone, except in the last thirty minutes, which are so bad that the film as a whole can be considered no better than mediocre. It pains me to see this.
Take, for instance, the first scene, which I mentioned above. This is a very dry, very funny scene. It speaks worlds of meaning with just a little dialogue and a lot of good acting. The movie has a similar tone through much of its running time, and the way Zaillian unfolds the details of the case is skillfully done: I was always interested to see what was going to happen, and who would be to blame for the disaster in Woburn. There are also some great supporting performances, the best coming from William H. Macy (as Jan's high-strung accountant), Robert Duvall (as a quirky defense lawyer), and Kathleen Quinlan (an actress who needs her own movie).
I was so ready to love this movie, but it takes such an unexpected, disastrous turn in the last thirty minutes. It's nearly impossible to explain in detail without giving away the ending, but I can say that it requires us to dislike a bunch of people who seemed likable for most of the movie. It also has the most aggravating anticlimax of the decade, whimpering to a close without awarding its audience the least bit of satisfaction. I attribute all of these failings to the fact that A Civil Action has been based on a true story: Hollywood endings aren't always good, but at least they wrap stuff up. This is a story that didn't have an ending, and someone should have put it on, even if it meant changing the facts a little. As I said, cinema is more interesting than real life; if you're going to make real life into cinema, it needs to be made cinematic.
Psychosis Rating: 5/10
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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