Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich is an American legal clerk who, despite having no prior experience or education in law, was instrumental in constructing a case in 1993 against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (also known as PG&E) about groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California. The success of the lawsuit turned her into a media personality, she became the president of Brockovich Research & Consulting, and this fame led to her working as a consultant for the New York law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg and eventually Shine Lawyers in Australia. She seemed to be a strong enough figure that a film dedicated to her life-changing lawsuit would be appealing, and this proved to be correct, as the biographical legal drama released by Universal and Colombia Pictures in the year 2000, would become a heavy award contender.

Set in late 1990s California, unemployed single mother of three Erin Brockovich (played by Julia Roberts) struggles to make ends meet for herself and her kids due to her alluring appearance, minimal qualifications, and her confrontational and often foul-mouthed attitude, usually turning people off from hiring her. Despite this constant set-back, she eventually finds work within a law firm after she demands one from her lawyer, Ed Masry (played by Albert Finney) after he failed to defend her from a traffic incident that was brought to court. Diving into her work, she discovers through a real estate case that several people living within a radius close to PG&E’s factories are at risk of several life-threatening health issues, mainly due to carcinogenic hexavalent chromium contaminating the water supply. Realizing that PG&E are trying to undermine the severity of the situation by slyly paying off their victims, Erin convinces Ed to file a major class action lawsuit in order to give compensation to all the people affected by their actions. Erin finds that PG&E aren’t willing to go down without strong defense and this drive to fight against the company keeps her away from her children and her new ‘’boyfriend’’ George (played by Aaron Eckhart). Despite this, she is willing to prove to this company, as well as her work associates, that she is more than capable of handling this situation while also proving to herself that she can exist within this firm as a credible employee.

Erin Brockovich proved successful for the year as it was nominated for four Academy Awards, did fairly well at the box office, and brought this true story with enough passion and honesty that a lot more people are aware of it, and with enough solid performances and respect for the actual event, the results turn out pretty good even years later.

The legal drama behind this true story is a story that would work nicely for a film, but also one that could get away with being portrayed as pretty light-hearted. While the movie doesn’t talk down to its audience or undermine the struggles of the real people who were affected by this event, you can definitely tell from the acting, the directing, to even how the film was shot, edited, and paced, that it’s very much a product of its time. It’s a movie that feels much more akin to a typical cinematic drama rather than a full-blown realistic gritty biopic, and despite how that could be perceived, it doesn’t prove to be a negative. The movie is strong enough to hold the audience’s attention for its roughly two-hour length, detailing the story out in a methodical and talkative manner, but in a way that is written well and smoothly so that casual audiences who are unaware of typical lawyer jargon can still follow what’s going on. For something that could be very confusing, screenwriter Susannah Grant does a decent job laying the information out in a clean enough way that it remains engaging yet never goes so hard in one direction that it loses its emotional focus and focal point. It remembers to capture the familial and emotional element of this story through its focus on the multiple families that were affected as well as Erin’s perspective of being a mother and trying to juggle this situation while also not ignoring her children.

It feels like a human story front and centre and really benefits from that. It’s true that the movie does present itself in a traditional Hollywood manner as it follows very expected beats and tropes and isn’t always entirely clear what parts of the story are exact to the truth and what parts are slightly fabricated for the purpose of narrative flow, but it never becomes too distracting or feels like it’s being inauthentic. The directing by then relative newcomer, Stephen Soderbergh, whose later filmography involves films like The Informant,  Contagion, Magic Mike, Logan Lucky, Kimi, and the Ocean’s film franchise, seems surprising tame for someone whose strongest work is in heist films and psychological crime thrillers, but on that note, it is directed smoothly and is easy to process, the actors feel real enough with just a small amount of over-the-topness to stand out, and even though the last act features a whole segment involving signing partitions which goes on for a bit too long, it surprisingly doesn’t get boring.

Easily the biggest takeaway from this film and the success that it garnered was that Julia Roberts took home the Oscar for her performance as Erin Brockovich, giving this actress mostly known for rom coms a prestigious title that would greatly impact her career in the long run. When looking at her line-up, Julia Roberts is an actress that sadly isn’t very diverse in her performances, and more often than not played characters that feel remarkably similar to herself. It was a trend that allowed her to be in a multitude of sappy rom-coms that in all honestly, were a little by-the-numbers and pretty pandering, and Roberts’ acting (whether good or bad) felt specifically tailored to meet expectations and provide a sunny, inoffensive delivery that could appeal to the American market and not break away from the expected norm. This may have been one of the reasons she was picked for this role, as Brockovich very much feels like one of the characters Roberts would play in her films (the two even have very similar personalities), and while it could come across like Roberts just isn’t a strong enough performer to play a different character, it doesn’t quite reach that level. In truth, this is probably one of the strongest performances she’s done, but with the caveat being that it is a strong performance while still existing within her comfortable wheelhouse.

The role still feels like a character rather than a real person and Roberts isn’t doing anything new or strikingly rare for her, but the little extra twinge of raw emotion helps make this performance stand out more than her usual ”American Sweetheart” portrayals that are fine but definitely feel manufactured. While it might be her peak, it does still show she is capable of pulling it off and she does do well throughout the movie as the film’s focus and centre. Sadly, the rest of the major characters aren’t too strong by comparison. Most of the victims are portrayed pretty well and you do feel bad for them, especially Marg Helgenberger who brings so much to such a minor role, but most of the other recognizable faces aren’t given much to work with. Aaron Eckhart is just the pretty boy love interest who doesn’t offer much to the film outside of following stock conflicted romance banter, and Albert Finney is a little too over-the-top cartoony in parts to feel like a genuine portrayal of a real human being.

The way the film is shot in certain parts gives off an independent, even odd presentation that feels a little unconventional. This, on the one hand, feels appropriate, as not only was cinematographer Ed Lachman an independent filmmaker, but Soderbergh was also known for dipping his toe into avant-garde art house material and was still at the time more so known for his independent productions, but despite this, it’s a style that doesn’t really bring a lot to this movie in particular, and due to the fact that it goes away at a certain point and becomes a lot more straightforward later on, it makes it feel extra random and pointless. As previously stated, the movie does slightly come off as pretty cinematically constructed in terms of its presentation, pacing and acting in parts, which can make it feel less realistic, but since biopics of the time were still told in this kind of tone, it’s not too out of place unless it pauses for a few minutes to let the characters say a stinging remark or punch line to a joke prime for a trailer moment  (those are the moments where it feels a pretty forced and very much like a holdover from Roberts’ other films). Even if this quality of bite was attributed to the real person, something about the delivery of these lines and the scenes themselves feels especially fabricated and not in line with something that is supposed to feel authentic, even though there are a few times where it’s okay (the opening feels pretty genuine in that regard).

The movie is also incredibly orange in terms of its lighting, which would usually be very distracting, but due to the location and time period, it doesn’t feel too out of place and even helps bring an atmosphere and feel to the environment. You do get a solid understanding of each person’s living standard and even their place in society through their home conditions, which are sprinkled with enough cluttered and constructed in a homely yet still run-down manner by production designer Phillip Messina, to come across as legitimate. What does take away from the movie is the soundtrack and musical score, which is definitely the most Hollywood aspect of this movie. Thomas Newman’s score feels incredibly sappy, constructed, and manipulated to feel like an Award-grabby piece rather than created to emulate the grungy, backwater nature that this environment should naturally showcase.

For what could’ve been a very in-your-face annoying film that felt very false in nature and only served to add another money-making feature to Julia Roberts’ filmography, Erin Brockovich avoids falling into that trap and instead produces a movie that toes that commercial line while including just enough grounded material and direction to make it a sensibly enjoyable watch. It is very much a product of its time due to its presentation, acting and visuals, and it’s not going to be a movie that works for everybody, but the direction is sound and makes the film enjoyable to sit through, the writing is effective at explaining complicated material nicely without forgoing the human element, some of the acting is pretty good (mainly from Roberts) and even some of the awkward acting is still fun in the right lens, and while it is a little messy and still features some dumb Hollywood cliches, it could’ve been a lot worse given the circumstances. For a woman who seemed to a lot of good and is continuing to do so to this day, this movie feels like a decent send up to her.