A Civil Action

B

For as long as I know, legal thrillers aren't the hallmark of originality. It's always David vs Goliath with the underdog protagonist ending up finding his soul. While there are always times when a little spice is thrown in a good measure (A Time to Kill added elements of racism), this ubiquitous still applies all the time. I don't know if a movie that uses another formula might be provide a better story (why shouldn't it?), but that movie is still to come.

A Civil Action is an uneven amalgram of lighthearted storytelling, underdog lawyer story and personal odyssey. John Travolta is Jan Schlihtmann, a flamboyant personal injury lawyer, aka ambulance chaser, who is making his way to the top. He has money, career and fame. What he doesn't have is a healthy conscience. When a water-poisoning case is thrown his way, he only became interested when he realized big-money is involved. Eight children have died of leukimia in a small town in New England, possibly because of a corporate illegal dumping of toxic waste. What started as a straightforward, grab-the-money-and-run case turned to be a personal battle between Jan (and his conscience) against the corporate evil personified in its big-wig aging lawyer Jerome Facher (Rober Duvall).

As I said, A Civil Action is both a legal drama and a finding-his-soul story. However, unlike in The Verdict, where both elements go hand-in-hand, here it goes one after the other. The first half of the movie was filled with witness depositions and opening statements, with John Travolta providing the narration of ambulance-chasers Dos and Don'ts; and the much more interesting second was more low-key. The tone of the movie, while evenly light, doesn't complement either side of the narratives and hence the product becomes neither here nor there. Director Steve Zaillian, writer of Schindler's List, uses alot of quick-cuts between scenes, like Robert Duvall talking to a class of Harvard students interlocked with a courtroom scene. Unfortunately they are unnecessary, and only serve to distract the viewer from the drama.

Inspite of this, A Civil Action does have its share of outstanding qualities. Zaillian's storytelling while at times unefficient is still able to keep the audience interested, which, considering how predictable some parts of the movie are, is quite an achievement.

John Travolta is a quintessential choice for Jan. It is imperrative that our protagonist can be a conceited egoist and likeably charming at the same time. Robert Duvall plays a part we see all the time in legal drama, the mousy old lawyer that always packs a punch. William H Macy and Tony Shalloub play partners in Jan's firm with significant dillema of the company's dwindling money. Kathleen Quinlan supports as the mother of a deceased leukimic child. John Lithgow and Sidney Pollack round up the ensemble.

With so many big names, it's hard to not be fascinated by or at least interested in the movie. Cinematographer Conrad Hall paints the canvas with such details that there's always things to see - its a hold-no-bars kind of photography. It's a double-edged-sword since some scenes require subtlety. But maybe that's not what A Civil Action is about. It's a little too many things to be anything serious, but as a 2-hour entertainment goes, it's adequate.
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