It just comes off as Oscar bait, particularly for star Meryl Streep. She plays a worker at a facility that makes plutonium rods for nuclear plants. She is unhappy with the way she is treated there, and is concerned for her own safety and that of her co-workers. She becomes deeply involved in the union, which irks her superiors. The film has a fantastic cast, including Kurt Russell, Fred Ward, Craig T. Nelson and Cher. Along with the obligatory Streep nomination (she lost to Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment), Cher also received her first nomination. I'd chock that up more to a classic case of dressing down, and one knock-out scene where she admits her true feelings for Karen Silkwood. I hate to say this about the man who gave us Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but Mike Nichols tends to be one of the dullest directors in Hollywood. Woolf is pretty much the only film of his that holds up today, and he's made a ton of stinkers in his career (first and foremost being What Planet Are You From?  blech!). While it's not great either, I'd much rather watch Norma Rae again than this.