Minamata * * *

A role for Depp where
he has to really focus

I'm surprised it took them this long to make it. But now that it has been made, and hardly anyone is going to see it (despite the Jonny Depp drawcard), I can understand why other producers might have dismissed the idea.

Fifty years ago the people in the village of Minamata in Japan became seriously ill. Their children were being born with deformities. It was all to do with the water, which a local chemical company were dumping their refuse into.  Mercury poisoning.

W. Eugene Smith was a celebrated photographer for Life Magazine, virtually at the end of his career, when he was talked into going there to photograph what was going on.  

True to the title the film focuses only on Eugene Smith's celebrated Minamata photographic essay. Though insight into his personality is given to us - he was a cantankerous drunkard and a bit of cynic and his glory days were over. Somehow, Johnny Depp found something inside himself to portray such a man (who'd have thunk?)

It can be plodding at times, but the acting is excellent.  It's a sincere film and well worth a viewing.  If only to remind ourselves of the horror of what happened and how easily it can happen again without constant vigilance.