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Erin
Brockovich
is not an eye opening startling revelation in film but it's entertaining. When a
male version of something fails what should you do? Make a female version of
course. Like a line of clothing Erin Brockovich is what comes out of the
failure of A Civil Action. I guess someone thought Julia Roberts could
hold the audiences attention better than John Travolta. That decision maker was
correct and deserves a nice, big bonus.
Erin Brockovich is the story of a woman who wants to go back to work but
has no previous working experience. After many trials and tribulations of
consequences she ends up with a job at a law firm and stumbles onto a big case.
She investigates the case and in that she finds a renewed confidence plus she
finally is getting respect.
The big case involves a power plant that is causing sickness to the people who
live near it. Of course Roberts works for a small time law firm and they get
this big case. The movie is a series of courses. It's very predictable but when
Roberts is in the formula, it tastes much better.
The best part of the film is by far Roberts. She's loud, emotional, persistent
and sexual. I was also impressed by the performance of Robert's love interest
played by Aaron Eckhart (who incidentally was in one of my all time favorite
movies, In the Company of Men). His lovable George, and forward Harley
Davidson loving character perfectly matched up against Julia's Brockovich.
Also putting in a good performance was Albert Finney. His role as Ed Masry,
Brockovich’s lawyer then employer, was funny, smart and where most of the
humor in the film came from. Finney was recently in the film version of Kurt
Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions and he was terrible, the whole film
was terrible.
Director Steven Soderbergh uses a lot of things to advantage in this film. He
uses Roberts, different film stocks, different camera angles and styles that
work real well with the lowbrow kind of people that the film is supposed to be
about. Not to say low brow is bad, lowbrow is the real people. It worked much
better than Drowning Mona with it’s fake accents and attempted
corniness and oddity of the small time. This works much better. His string of
excellent films of recent include The Limey and Out of Sight. Both which used
excellent editing techniques to their favor. Both were in my favorite movies in
their respective year plus seeing his Sex, lies, and videotape at a young
age basically screwed up my mind. That’s how I got to be where I am today.
Erin Brockovich is very well written by Susannah Grant. The humor is
slick, and interesting and complements of Roberts’ style very well. Much
better than her script for Pocohontas and Everafter, those junky
retellings of classic children’s stories. She coincidentally wrote the
upcoming 28 Days which features my personal favorite actor Steve Buscemi.
My personal favorite scenes in the movie involved the hostility between
Brockovich and the real lawyers. Especially when they in disbelief of the great
things she's done, Erin just says the perfect thing. The absolute best is when
she confronts her snobby brown-nosing lawyer/ enemy. This woman looks down on
her but Erin can do twice as much as this woman can because she has the street
smarts.
I like to refer to this movie as a chick flick with cleavage and a brain. Brockovich
is a strong woman who uses her features to her advantage. Roberts definitely
used her features to her advantage in the film. She was funny charming and the
film as a whole is definitely a film I would recommend even if it is sort of a
chick flick, there’s something for everyone.
Starring: Julia
Roberts, Albert
Finney, and Aaron
Eckhart
Written by: Susannah
Grant
Directed by: Steven
Soderbergh
Rating: *** out of ****/ 71 out of 100
Reviewed by: Joe Soria
Running Time: 130 minutes
Rated R for language.
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The Soundtrack- Order this soundtrack now featuring
songs by Sheryl Crow and others.
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