Film Review: Silkwood

Director: Mike Nichols

In the current era of mistrust surrounding the governments of the first world, especially the disclosures regarding the NSA programme in America to monitor millions of people without their knowledge or consent, Silkwood helps to remind us that things weren't necessarily better in the 1970's. The Atomic Energy Commission had been turning a blind eye to hugely dangerous lapses in safety at nuclear processing plants and in this case the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site (near Crescent, Oklahoma).

The Story of Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) shows how she became aware of the safety issues and raised them with the union only for her employer and fellow employees to turn against her. It affects her relationship with her children who she lives apart from and even her boyfriend Drew (Kurt Russell). She was persecuted at a job from all parties before the threats to her became far more serious.

Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) at the Kerr-McGee Plutonium plant

The background to the story and what happened is genuinely intriguing and actually quite frightening, the power of the big companies in America. Unfortunately the film is a very slow moving and rather tedious affair, the first hour sees very little except Karen working at the plant and fooling around at home with her boyfriend. Many films rush the backstory these days and forge straight onto the main part of the plot but here the opposite happens. The finale seems to show you one thing then run title cards before the credits that tell you something different. An incredibly muddled film at best but the acting from Meryl Streep is predictably very good and her support from Kurt Russell and Cher is impressive if not slightly offbeat.

2/4 A potentially great story is wasted