“Minamata” is often undermined by its protagonist, whose boorish ways clash with Japanese culture and distract from its central message.

Minamata is weighed down by self-important direction that loses the human beings in this story by prioritizing the headlines.

Taken on its own merits — as an accessible if ahistorical dramatization of an environmental tragedy — “Minamata” does what it sets out to do very well.

The insistent drive to place the redemption of a heroic individual in the foreground diminishes the same Japanese people punished by the tragedy; they are used as satellites for Depp's magnetic and compelling performance. [Full review in Spanish]