SILKWOOD (1983)

In spite of his much hyped Golden Touch rep, Mike Nichols, in the wake of two DOA releases (DAY OF THE DOLPHIN/’73; THE FORTUNE/’75) waited nearly a decade before trying again.  So this muckraking political tale of Karen Silkwood, putative nuclear fuel factory martyr, was considered something of a triumphant comeback.  Now, it’s hard to see what all the fuss was about.  Even the acting, usually a given under Nichols, is over-baked, with so much busy behavioral detail & tics it might be an investigation into Tourette’s Syndrome rather than sloppy work procedure and possible anti-union/cover-up murder around the plant.  Guided by Nichols, Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, and on down the line with the notable exception of imperturbable Fred Ward, all do twenty small jittery things when one or two would do.  Streep, in particular, so busy with her hair & cigarettes, a gong of foreshadowing cancerous doom could have been rung.  A deglamorized Cher got a lot of attention at the time, but of the leads, only Russell surprises.  Over the next 30 years, Nichols made eleven more features, three or four reasonably good, but certainly nothing that lived up to his early promise.  Heck, even his early promise doesn’t live up to his early promise.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Stylistically, SILKWOOD less nuclear cautionary then union busting downer; less CHINA SYNDROME/’79 than NORMA RAE/’79 (which probably holds up best of the three).