This film took a very dramatic story (this is easy to see just from the actual plot points) and told it with about as much emotion as pathos as a dramatization for "Hard Copy." The script chose all the wrong points of the story to focus on, managing to actually bore us through the telling of a very compelling story. The movie also completely wasted the talents of some great actors, like William Macy, who did the best he could to make his one-note character actually have some dimension, and Tony Shalhoub, who is, for most of the movie, only used as set dressing. Even still, I would have liked the movie more had someone not made the worst choice of closing credit music in film history! Whoever made the unthinkable decision to play the Talking Heads' "Take Me to the River" after a true story about children dying from poisoned river water should be kicked out of the entertainment industry forever. Not only is the upbeat song completely the wrong tone for the somber movie, but the content of the song, about being taken to the river and dunked in the water, makes the choice completely callous, rude, and downright obscene. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the parents of those children sued the filmmakers for emotional distress. What a stupid, stupid move.
Review of A Civil Action
