Erin Brockovich 

Released March 17, 2000

Available on Amazon Prime and other streaming services

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart

It had been 20 years since I had seen Erin Brockovich. I remembered it as a feel-good movie, and I half-remembered having a negative opinion of it. But I’ve been nostalgic lately for classic and vintage movies. I hit “Play.”

On this second go-around, Erin Brockovich held up quite well. It was engaging, entertaining, and even a tad inspiring. I tried to recall what it was that I didn’t like about it the first time I saw it. It was only after finding two negative reviews of the movie – one by A.O. Scott and another by Roger Ebert (see below) that I remembered: I felt the entire thing was too Hollywood. Too contrived, too simplistic, etc.

I didn’t feel that way about it this time. I don’t deny the criticism. This is not, by any means, a great movie. It does not, for example, teach us anything we don’t already know (like corporate greed exists) or dive deeply into the human condition. But it is a moving story made into a polished and successful Hollywood product. At this time in my movie-consuming life, I’m okay with that.

Erin Brockovich is a legal drama based on a fascinating true story about a legal assistant (Brockovich) who waged war against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) over groundwater contamination at one of its plants. The acting is terrific. The direction is invisible (i.e., good). And it’s chock full of emotionally tasty little bits. (One that should be included in the Hall of Fame of Movie Clips: Brockovich rebuffing a dismissive comment by a consulting attorney by reciting, verbatim, the phone numbers and personal details of all of the clients she had developed files on.)

Given the subject matter, the success of this movie depends greatly on the performance of Julia Roberts. And she is very, very good. Ably supported by Albert Finney as head of the small legal firm she works for, and by Aaron Eckhart as her motorcycle boyfriend/nanny to her children, Roberts is in almost every scene and makes every scene work.

I found it impossible not to compare the character she created for this role to the one she brought to the screen in Pretty Woman. In both movies, she plays a woman who is unsophisticated but also quick-witted and emotionally intelligent. In Pretty Woman, she plays a cliché – the prostitute with a heart of gold. For Erin Brockovich, her character’s personality is just as compelling but more complex.

Most critics share that view. For her portrayal of Brockovich, Roberts became the first actress to win an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Critic’s Choice Movie Award, a Golden Globe, a National Board of Review Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for a single performance.

Critical Reception 

* “Julia Roberts is flat out terrific in Erin Brockovich.” (David Ansen, Newsweek)

* “Julia Roberts carries the film in the best sense, by taking us on a human journey of genuine discovery and growth.” (Jack Mathews, New York Daily News)

* There is obviously a story here, but Erin Brockovich doesn’t make it compelling. The film lacks focus and energy, the character development is facile and thin.” (Roger Ebert)

* “After proving, for about 40 minutes, what a marvelous actress she can be, Ms. Roberts spends the next 90 content to be a movie star. As the movie drags on, her performance swells to bursting with moral vanity and phony populism.” (A.O. Scott, the NYT)

Interesting Facts

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this the first time I saw the movie, but after watching it this time I did a bit of research. Some of the tidbits I found:

* According to Brockovich’s website, the film “is probably 98% accurate.”

* Since winning her case against Pacific Gas and Electric, Brockovich went on to have a very successful career as an anti-pollution advocate.

* The movie suggests that the real Erin Brockovich was poorly educated but smart and articulate. It is true that she did not have a college degree, but she did have an associate degree of fine arts from Wade College in Texas. And it is not surprising that she was (is) smart and articulate: Her family was well educated. Her father was an engineer and her mother was a journalist.

* Yes, she won a beauty pageant. After working as a management trainee for Kmart in 1981, she entered the Miss Pacific Beauty Pageant and won. But she did not pursue beauty as a career.

* The PG&E case was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history. Masry & Viititoe, the law firm for which Brockovich was a legal clerk, received $133 million on that settlement.

You can watch the trailer for the movie here.