Erin Brockovich (2000) 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Starring Julia Roberts and Albert Finney. Written by Susannah Grant. Directed by Steven Soderbergh.
"Erin Brockovich" is like watching a master magician perform: You know you're being hoodwinked, nevertheless, you find it entertaining.
Erin Brockovich is a free spirit. How do you know? She wears halter tops and mini skirts, curses like a sailor and elicits disapproving glances from the uptight people around her.
How do we know these people are uptight. Because they wear starchy clothes, they're not perfectly built and they work in a law office.
Catch my drift. "Erin Brockovich" is an enjoyable David vs. Goliath story, only this David is a twice-divorced mother with three little kids. But beneath its glossy veneer, this based-on-a-true-story feature appears smug, sanctimonious, self-righteous and pandering.
I'm not saying that's all bad. All movies try to manipulate your emotions, that's what good films are supposed to do. But "Erin Brockovich" does it in such a contemptuous style. It's like the magician daring the audience to guess the secret of the trick.
You may still feel you are being entertained, but at the same time you almost feel as if you were being held in contempt.
Julia Roberts' Erin Brockovich is a kindred spirit to Sally Field's Norma Rae and Meryl Streep's Karen Silkwood - with a bit of Cher's biker mom from "Mask "tossed in.
That is she's not an educated person in the classical sense, but she is a smart woman who knows right from wrong and has a built-in b.s. detector. Roberts' Erin usually fails to see any gray area. Things are either yes or no, black or white. Lawyers and the legal system in general merely complicate the world and muddle clear-cut issues of morality. Thus, Erin Brockovich is a very proletarian movie.
Yet Roberts cuts through all this baggage. She is the movie, a true film star whom the camera loves, a young woman who holds the screen and draws you to her. There's a cliché about someone being good enough to sell ice to eskimos. That's Roberts, especially when she flashes that multimillion dollar smile. You forget all the movie's manipulations, everything that is bogus about "Erin Brockovich" and just melt in her personality.
The rest of the cast? Well, there basically props, furniture off which Roberts plays. Even Albert Finney as the gruff, pragmatic Ed Masry, the head of the law firm at which Erin works as a filing clerk, is putty when up against this human dynamo.
The story, oh yea, I almost forgot. Erin, when filing some papers for her boss, uncovers a cover-up by massive Pacific Gas & Electric involving contaminated water in a nearby community.
She rallies and bands together those affected by PG&E's actions and through her tenacity and dedication - and some legal expertise from her boss - wins them a massive settlement.
If only screenwriter Susannah Grant and director Steven Soderbergh had had the same determination as Erin to let the story tell itself without resorting to smoke and mirrors.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at bobbloom@iquest.net
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