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Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Great Film overall

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

I grew up and live next door to Woburn and go to church in Woburn. The local commuter rail station in Woburn is named after Jimmy Anderson. This is a great movie about a very sad topic. I give Jan and his team a lot of credit for persuing this case.

The cast is solid with stars like William Macy , James Gandolfini , Tony Shelhoub , Jon Lithgow and Stephen Fry . Robert Duvall gives a good performance , but I would argue if he deserved Oscar nomination. John Travolta fits the main role quite nicely .The movie is quite fine directed and written . The problem is with the main hero . He is barely written . We get information in the first minutes of the movie that he is cold and cynical , but we never really get to know what is going in his head . His decision about helping those people seems to come from nowhere . It just happens . It feels like his actions aren't natural , but happen because the writer wishes so. Also , bad song choice for the ending credits.Trials are for those who want to prove something , mostly to themselves. Civil law is about compromise – to settle and get money . In our everyday life we often compromise , even when we know that we should fight for what we believe in . It's good to do something against logic , so we could look in the mirror and don't be ashamed with what we see there.I give it 7/10.

Based on the book of the same name by Jonathan Harr, 'A Civil Action', directed neatly by Steven Zaillian, is A Gripping Film, that brings a true-story on celluloid, efficiently. The Writing, at most places, is sharp, and the performances by Travolta and Duvall, are hugely effective.'A Civil Action' is based on a true story of a court case about environmental pollution that took place in Woburn, Massachusetts in the 1970s. It was a tragic time, for the people who lost their loved ones. And the cinematic version pays respect to them. The Court Scenes are sharply written and executed, while some scenes, especially towards the end, lose pace.Steven Zaillian's Adpated Screenplay is mostly intense and gripping. His direction, is neat as well. Cinematography by Conrad L. Hall is picture perfect. Editing is fair.Performance-Wise: Travolta and Duvall, both own the film. Travolta is flawless as the righteous attorney, while Duvall is powerful and menacing. Among other performances, William H. Macy and James Gandolfini stand on their own with note-worthy performances. John Lithgow is perfect, as ever.On the whole, A Must See Film!

If you go into this expecting an exciting, edge of your seat legal thriller type of movie you;re going to be disappointed. I watched this twice. The first time because from what had been described, that's what I was expecting - and I was disappointed. But I decided to give it another chance, reflecting more on the moral of the story and the characters. Using this lens, I wasn't disappointed.John Travolta put on a pretty good performance as Jan Schlictmann, a personal injury lawyer who, although unenthused at first, takes on a case involving environmental contamination that has caused several children in Massachussetts to die of leukemia. Basically, he takes it on because he discovers that there are two huge corporations he could get money from, and that's one moral of the story: personal injury law is less about the victims who've been hurt and more about the money that can be made. IN fact, the very opening of the movie establishes that well, as Schlictmann (in a narration by Travolta) describes who the preferred victims are, based on how much money you can expect to make off them, and children are at the bottom of the list. Schlictmann belongs to a small but pretty successful law firm that doesn't accept cases unless they know they can win, since that's the only way they get paid. The whole point of this type of practice, we're told, is to avoid trials and get big settlements. His colleagues doubt the wisdom of accepting this case but go along with it, until Schlictmann loses his "perspective" in two way: he actually starts to care about the victims, declining large settlements because they're not enough, and, faced with a degree of contempt from the big law firms he's going up against, he decides he has to prove himself. The result is disaster. The firm and all the partners go broke, even after a settlement is made, because what they get doesn't come close to covering their costs, and the families are disappointed because they didn't really care about money - they wanted an apology and a clean-up.Although not especially exciting, the movie is well-paced and interesting, and includes a solid supporting cast, including folks like Robert Duvall, William H. Macy and Tony Shalhoub. I found the end a bit anti-climactic. Hard to believe you could feel sympathy for an ambulance chaser, but by the time the movie ends, I really wanted Schlictmann to win. Instead, he ends up totally destitute - telling a bankruptcy judge that he's left with $14 and a portable radio. He wants to continue the case but doesn't have the resources, so he turns everything over to the EPA. They do take the case on - and win - but Schlictmann is long gone by the time that happens.Since this was a true story, it was nice to see the companies forced to pay up, and somewhat uplifting to learn that Schlictmann switched from personal injury law to environmental law. And, as much as I wanted him to succeed in this case in the end, it is a true story, so the end was what it was. A pretty good movie all in all. 7/10