Out of the blue comes Dark Waters, Todd Haynes’ new film based on his star, Mark Ruffalo’s environmental passions. Fear of the water depicted in this legal procedural is not because of sharks, but because of industry, specifically the story of Dupont’s deliberate poisoning of landfill resulting in the death of animals and cancer in humans. The film did not take the conventional festival circuit, and, unlike the saturated colors of  movies Carol or Mildred Pierce, takes director Haynes into a dark mood and commercial genre; he handles it well crafting drama from a ripped from-the-headlines scandal, focusing on the tireless efforts of a corporate lawyer, Rob Bilott, whose firm sides with industry.

Meeting up with Bilett at the Lincoln Restaurant this week, at the movie’s premiere, we learned how the story is not yet over, with lawsuits accruing beyond the film’s final frame. But, as the film suggests, is it too late? The lethal chemical was also an ingredient of Teflon, a household brand, and everyone alive has ingested some amount.

But Bilett was all smiles—at least for this celebration, as was the movie’s producer and star Mark Ruffalo, who plays him with a dour, nerdy look. His long-suffering wife, Sarah, played wonderfully by Anne Hathaway who did not attend, was resplendent in red. The film makes a point that she is a lawyer who became a stay at home mom raising their three sons in Cincinnati, the family’s home and film’s location. She’s back to practicing, she said, and pointed out their sons partying amidst some scene stealing cast, particularly Mare Cunningham. She plays a neighbor to Bill Camp’s beleaguered farmer, Wilbur Tennant, whose dead cows threw dark shade on Dupont.