Erin Brockovich (2000)

Running Time: 2 Hours 10 mins
Genre: Biography/Drama
Estimated Budget: $52, 000,000
Estimated Gross: $256,271,286 (Worldwide)
Awards: Best Actress Oscar - Julia Roberts

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Susannah Grant
Stars: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart

Erin Brockovich tells the true story of a struggling single mother who after a car accident starts working for the lawyer who handled her lawsuit. As a ballsy legal assistant she stumbles onto a huge cover-up by a power company and through sheer attitude and determination proves their guilt and changes the lives of hundreds of people affected by the scandal. This is a funny but deeply moving film which led Julia Roberts to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2000 and deservedly so.

Steven Soderbergh broke onto the scene with the indie favourite Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)  he has also been responsible for such successes as Out of Sight (1998), Traffic (2000)  and most recently before his early retirement the controversial Behind the Candelabra (2013) about Liberace and his young lover Scott Thorson. So we know that Soderbergh can deliver a drama, and an effecting one at that. With Erin Brockovich he created a smart, intelligent film about a real woman in the real world, dealing with problems that a lot of audiences can easily relate to.

The class action lawsuit case against the power company PG and E (The Pacific Gas and Electric Company) is one of the biggest in history and is well known. The film Erin Brockovich tells the true events that led to the titular woman who was at the beginning a desperate mother in need of a job who practically bullies her lawyer into giving her a job, to discovering and practically single handedly bringing the company she works for into a fight against a multi-billion dollar corporation. Brockovich became suspicious of a real estate deal involving the power company and discovered they were buying up properties to cover up their contamination of land with hexavalent chromium a toxic waste that they had been illegally dumping and had got into the water system and was poisoning the residents of the surrounding town. Brockovich visits the residents and discovers they have naively believed a lie told by the company and that almost every family is suffering from horrendous health issues brought about by the chromium. Erin gets the plaintiffs together and succeeds in bringing the powerful company to trial, she gets each family a large sum of money that will go towards helping them with their medical bills and live a better life. Not bad for a woman with trashy clothes a big mouth and a bigger attitude.

I have been a huge fan of Julia Roberts for many years, and I feel that she is very under-appreciated. People seem to forget that she won an Oscar for this film, when they think Julia Roberts they think 90's Rom-Com queen for the likes of Pretty Woman (1990)  and Notting Hill (1999) but Julia Roberts is actually a very gifted actress. Given the opportunity she can really blow you away, she hinted at this skill in performances in Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) and The Pelican Brief (1993) and most recently with her Oscar nominated performance in August; Osage County (2013) proving that she has a dark side rarely allowed to be shown. Portraying a real person can be tricky, not as difficult here as Erin Brockovich is not a public figure therefore not well known. However undertaking this task there is a moral responsibility to the person being portrayed and all those involved with them to get the characteristics and behaviour correct. In a way that is not damaging to the person, also to tell the story as close to the truth as possible. So just that little bit of added stress on the performers part.

But Roberts sweeps this fact under the carpet, she has no trouble calling on her inner toughness to portray the exterior Erin Brockovich displays to the public. She creates a warm hearted woman who wants the best for those involved in the case she unfolds, out of a sheer need to see that justice prevails. Her co-star in this film is the brilliant Albert Finney the lawyer put upon by this loud edgy woman but who actually brings a bit of fight back to the ageing man. The chemistry between the two stars is excellent and with a sharp witty script from Susannah Grant they play off each other with brilliant lines of dialogue.

Soderbergh's film has a natural look to it, there are a lot of scenes travelling in a car and the vastness of the landscape suggests the vastness of the problem Brockovich is facing against this massive company. The film uses a lot of orange, that always stands out to me when I see it and the background seems washed out in comparison to the colourful outfits that Roberts' Erin wears to the office. The film has a good hearty message about standing up for what is right, that standing up and fighting can lead to justice. It is worth seeing not only for the great story of the underdog winning against the corrupt, but just to see Roberts swear and curse her way through a stunning award winning performance, must be an 8/10.