A Civil Action

(Buena Vista)

In his adaptation of Jonathan Harr's engrossing bestseller about the infamous Woburn toxic-waste suit, Steven Zaillian focuses on attorney Jan Schlichtmann, who succumbs to greed while trying to pin responsibility on two of America's bigger corporations, Beatrice and Grace. Portrayed by John Travolta, Schlichtmann is an empty suit, and he's destroyed by Robert Duvall as Jerome Facher, Beatrice's attorney, in the few scenes they share.