Date: Fri 20-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SARAH

Quick Words:

Travolta-Civil-Action-Playing

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING: Travolta Leads A Good Risk-Taker

By Trey Paul Alexander III

As we wilt during these sweltering dog days of summer, one of the season's

great escapes is the cool confines of your local movie house. Yet there may be

those -- as inexplicable as it may be to yours truly, an ardent supporter of

the "movies are meant to be seen in a theatre" platform -- who prefer to view

their flicks at home, bathed in the comforting, warm glow of the television

set. For all such odd folks (and you know who you are), this column is for

you, as we focus on a recent video release and one that went right to the top

of the rentals charts, A Civil Action, starring John Travolta.

Based on Jonathan Harr's best-seller of the same name, A Civil Action tackles

the true story of Jan Schlichtmann (Travolta), a Boston attorney who took on

the case of eight small-town families who claimed their deceased children

contracted leukemia from contaminated water poisoned by toxic waste that made

its way into the town's drinking supply. Though Schlichtmann is the lawyer who

eventually comes under their employ, he is far from their crusader or avenging

angel. Rather, the personal-injury specialist is made of the stuff for which

most lawyers are reviled.

The film, which boasts occasional voice-over commentary from Schlichtmann,

opens with a self-aware, polemic declaration as he melodramatically wheels a

quadriplegic client into a courtroom: "It's like this. A dead adult in his

twenties is generally worth less than one who is middle-aged. A dead woman

less than a dead man. A single adult less than one who's married. Black less

than white. Poor less than rich. And in the calculus of personal-injury law, a

dead child is worth the least of all." As if that weren't enough to tip us off

to our protagonist's creaky character, his integrity is shot down even further

when he resists taking the case despite "the theatrical value of several dead

kids. I like that."

So what does prod the opportunistic advocate to take the case? When he drives

to Woburn, Mass., to tell the dejected parents that he has declined their

case, he quickly reverses his decision after he realizes the defendants will

be W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods, two sizable corporations with considerably

deep pockets and prime potential for big-time publicity. What more could an

attorney want?

A Civil Action may be disappointing to viewers looking for a riveting

courtroom drama replete with all the customary conventions of the genre:

surprise witnesses and revelations, tear-jerking testimonies, flamboyant final

arguments, and so on. It also chronicles less of the plight and tragedies of

the Woburn citizens and focuses more on the attorneys, specifically

Schlichtmann, and how this small "orphan case" turned into a

character-redeeming marathon.

Travolta holds our attention throughout the film as the central character, but

much more was made of the scene-stealing performance given by Robert Duvall,

who scored an Oscar nomination in a supporting role as the venerable lawyer

Jerome Facher. An eccentric, self-styled professional with an absent-minded

professor's exterior yet shark-like instincts, Facher, who represents Beatrice

Foods, elicits our sympathies even as he defends the corporate giant trying to

hide from its alleged culpability.

Writer-director Steve Zaillian, who previously wrote the screenplay for

Schindler's List and directed Searching for Bobby Fischer , scores a more

modest yet still successful entry with A Civil Action . The PG-13 rated film

boldly makes what could have been a predictably dramatic, by-the-numbers court

piece into a somewhat riskier, more internal picture that actually plays

rather well on the small screen.