Focus Features has released the trailer for Dark Waters. Directed by Todd Haynes (Carol), the film is based on a true story of an attorney (Mark Ruffalo) for DuPont Chemical who discovered that his company was poisoning the residents of a small town for about forty years.

This feels like A Very Important Movie That No One Will See. And the reason I know this is that peoples aren’t going to spend their Thanksgiving weekend seeing a movie that bums them the fuck out. If you’re going to tell the story of a chemical company poisoning people (and we’ve had enough of these movies that they could basically be their own sub-genre) then you need a fun hook, like a take-no-nonsense Erin Brockovich. That’s not to say that this movie is good or bad, but this trailer makes it looks incredibly well intentioned and also painfully predictable right down to the scene where our hero is afraid to turn the key on his car because the powerful corporate interests are out to get him and also know how to make car bombs.

The wild card here is Haynes, who knows how to find fascinating twists on a story. I’m not sure if he has anything up his sleeve because this trailer looks pretty straightforward (The lawyer is good! The big company is evil!), but we’ll see how it all turns out.

Check out the Dark Waters trailer below. The film opens November 22nd, and also stars Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman.

Here’s the official synopsis for Dark Waters:

Inspired by a shocking true story, a tenacious attorney (Ruffalo) uncovers a dark secret that connects a growing number of unexplained deaths due to one of the world's largest corporations. In the process, he risks everything – his future, his family, and his own life - to expose the truth.

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