Film Review : ERIN BROCKOVICH * 1/2

Erin Brockovich (2000)

CAST Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Lockhart, Peter Coyote

DIRECTOR Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh's "Erin Brockovich", is a poor mans "Silkwood" or perhaps "Norma Rae". An independent woman who is trying to bring a corrupt company down.

The film stars Julia Roberts in the title role. A single mother with three young children trying to raise them the best that she can. She gets a job as a secretary (I think), at a law firm. She stiff arms her boss in letting her pursue a benign case and giving her raises. The case involves a large utility company called P.G.& E. She comes across documents that verify that P.G.& E., had contaminated the water supply for small California city. They billed a case against the company and arm themselves for a court room battle against them, looking for a huge settlement.

This movie has flashes of excellence. For instance, the performance by Finney as the Lawyer heading the investigation (and Brockovich's boss). He is very reliable like he has been through out his wonderful career. Roberts is up and down, looking sometimes as if she is filming scenes so she can go back and look at them afterward so she can see how pretty she looks. This film also suffers from trying to say too much, making some of the story lines so shallow we lose interest. Prime example is her relationship with George (played by Eckhart). Who cares? All the women in her office despise her. Yeah, so! Do single women trying to raise three children really wear the same clothes every single day? That is almost insulting to the female species. What we have here is a film so pre occupied in placing Erin Brockovich the person, up so high on a pedestal, that it takes away from the true essence of good film making. A story. The camera puts more emphasis on Julia Roberts chest than it does on emotions of the characters. The screenplay puts more emphasis on quick snappy come back lines to highlight Brockovich's wit than it does on developing any coehesion to the story. If she is so brilliant, why did she do nothing with herself to show this. Oh, she was raising children and catering to ex husbands. This reference is so shaded we really forget about it. It gives no impact. The character Erin Brockovich is just that. The real Erin Brockovich, I'm assuming, has a past and a life that built up to the circumstances we see in the movie. They're not shared with us. How am I supposed to care about this person when I don't know anything about them. A cluttered hazardous waste of a movie.