A civil action becomes a portrait of obsession as John Travolta's attorney pursues corporate accountability for a community's poisoned water. The case threatens to devour his firm, his finances, and his certainty, and the film respects the grind that heroism can require. With Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, James Gandolfini, and Kathleen Quinlan, it's a courtroom drama that believes facts are as dramatic as any twist.