Erin Brockovich, 2000

Erin Brockovich, 2000
Director: Steven Sodenbergh
Cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, David Brisbin



Stage: Home TV selection, nice Sunday night



Erin in short: Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck. This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss. While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners, that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. What she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she digs deeper, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her lawfirm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.


Preps: Seeing this marvellous piece several times, it's an honor to see it again.



Reality: As said, Erin Brockovich is a superb piece, taken after a real story. In the cast selection, Sodenbergh took a wild shot and employed Roberts, who just excells in this. Being on top of the lawyer world and betrayal of a gigantic corporate which is trying to exploit local citizens, I am just stunned. As Julia Roberts wasn't really a character drama actress up to this point, I am more than happy to see her energy, smile, outlook and wits, as she waltzes through the scenes charming everyone and winning everything with her intelligence, strongly supported by her two eminent pair (They are called boobs, Ed - as she claims herself in the piece).

A good learning point on several things - how to succeed if you don't have anything going on for you beside your looks (and you are verbally prostitutized by everyone else that is surrounding you). Furthermore, how to deal with pricks that fall on boobs and other women features. Besides this, how to deal with an international fraud, like this corporate actions seem to be. One more important point - lawyer world is work work work. And rarely fun. Plus, you need to gain trust from those that employ you, in this case, the citizen. This means loads of research and rarely victories, this means falling hard on your ass and crawling back. Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich does this a lot of times and crawls also in the heart of the viewer of this piece.

Anyone should watch it for several reasons. I am sure that most of the general audience will find something inside for themselves. Plus, a row example on winning the big gigants like depicted here gives you optimism that there can be also justice.


My personal rate: 8,5 (splendid job Roberts did, Sodenbergh won big time.).


Erin on IMDB