Author: iysmall@aol.com (Ron Small)
ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000)
Grade: B
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay: Susannah Grant
Starring: Julia Roberts, Albert Finny, Aaron Eckhart, Peter Coyote, Marg Helgenberger, Cherry Jones, Jamie Harold, Tracey Walter
ERIN BROCKOVICH is one of those rarities: a commercial star picture with something of a brain. It won't bring about world piece or even provide much of an emotional catharsis but, despite that we all know this story through and through and can pretty much predict how it'll turn out, it entertains without insulting anyone's intelligence. Perhaps what I appreciated most about the film was its director, Steven Soderbergh's, attention to detail.
Most directors of big budget star vehicles don't give a rat's tuchas about details. They simply tell their familiar story and rely on their star to bring audiences in. Soderbergh is an indie filmmaker at heart (and I mean "indie" in the best way possible). He came to fame with SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, delved into experimental film with SCHIZOPOLIS and THE UNDERNEATH, and most recently has began toying with high concept films (OUT OF SIGHT, the upcoming OCEAN 11 remake and TRAFFIC), imbuing them with a playful cleverness. With ERIN he has taken a product and put his own sensibilities all over it. And god bless him, because I am a true fan of High Concept Hollywood films…when they are done correctly. Problem is, they rarely are. These kind of pictures are grinded out by studio hacks like Damon Santoslefano and Brian Robbins without an once of joy or style. Films (PATCH ADAMS, STEPMOM, READY TO RUMBLE to name three) that trot forth before our glazed eyes, amping up woebegone tunes so we know when to cry, and wacky melodies cueing us to laugh. I think I can tell on my own, thank you very much. Ignorant pricks, those High Concept directors are.
For the most part, Soderbergh stays away from such Hollywood bullying tactics and tells this story in the cheeky, idiosyncratic manner for which he is known. All the typical Soderbergh elements are prevalent, in the neo realist direction, the hip score that doesn't call attention to itself the way most self consciously hip scores often do, and all the little components the director uses to flesh out his various characters.
As I said, ERIN is a star picture, and Julia Roberts is its incandescent star. After several light-as-Flockheart comedies, she steps into something a little divergent (but not much). ERIN isn't a heavy film by any means. In fact without Soderbergh's direction or Roberts in the lead it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that this picture would debut on SHOWTIME.
In BROCKOVICH Julia's attributes are constantly on display, from the very low cut dresses she wears (demonstrating the power of Personal Trainers), to that bright, wide smile that takes over her entire face. We always know we're watching Roberts and not Brockovich, but it works because the film builds on Roberts' sweet, snappy personality. Like Tom Cruise, the actress uses her smile as a bit of a weapon. It's one of her actors' "tricks". Similar to the peculiar George Clooney head bob, or Mark Wahlberg's intermittent scowl, it's something she flashes like a defense mechanism, a conceit that draws attention away from her performance, and into her attractiveness. I remember watching her in an interview on Howard Stern's E! show where she had that smile plastered across her face during the entire interrogation, all while Stern posed his usual litany of scatological queries. She seemed phony, like she was in pain but had to hide it with that wide smile. Like I said, it's a trick, but one that works its desired effect and, believe it or not, Stern soon acquiesced. It's important that actors be aware of their range, as Roberts seems to have become after some ill-fated attempts at character roles. After all, Cruise may be unable to do a passable Irish accent (see FAR AND AWAY, actually don't, just take my word for it), but he sure can paste on that affable grin whenever he's in trouble (which he did a whole lot in EYES WIDE SHUT).
And Roberts uses the smile well as Erin Brockovich, an accidental lawyer who stumbles upon a PG and E scandal, then, along with her grizzled boss, a veteran\amateur attorney (skillfully acted by Albert Finny in all his fog horn glory), she attempts to bring down the company. Nothing new here. We've seen this kind of thing in films from SILKWOOD to THE INSIDER, but this movie is full of the style and charm that most of the others lacked. THE INSIDER sunk because of its stubborn, unwavering attention to the procedure of its true story, hardly focusing on the human element. It was skillfully made, but ultimately dramatically inert. I saw SILKWOOD so long ago (I believe I was all of ten years old) that I won't even bother commenting on what it did right or wrong, though at ten anything without green mutated turtles bored me silly.
BROCKOVICH isn't academic, it's cheerful, and it's the kind of film that will make you smile. In fact I felt, at first, that the plot worked against the film (and maybe I still feel that a bit). It opens with Brockovich in a terrifically unexpected accident, shifting to her hectic home life, an attempted pass from a motorcycle jockey (played with a little too much smug intelligence by Aaron Eckheart) who falls to the ground after being "shot down" by Brockovich (a little detail I'm sure most directors would neglect to include), and her out spoken attempts to get a job. This stuff is handled with such gleeful naturalism that I might have given the film higher marks had it just gone along as a simple character study of this marvelously fascinating women. But I doubt most audiences would like that.
When the scandal is introduced the way it is I admit I was groaning for about ten minutes, but things pick up. Soderbergh stages terrifically mild confrontations, and the relationship between Finny and Roberts is subtly charming. Really the only reason I stayed involved in the picture was because of how fun Roberts makes the character of Brockovich. I would rather see that character (who's based on a real person) go through a familiar story than no story.
Though Soderbergh does make a TV movie-like plot more than watchable, I do wish he had taken it a couple steps further. For instance there's a scene where a PG and E lawyer comes down to the firm to meet with Finny and Erin. Right when we see this bookish, rather mousy looking fellow we immediately know that he is going to be played for laughs, and the good guys will come out on top. During the meeting Brockovich stares (one of those if looks could kill stares) directly at him, her eyes smoldering with disgust. Meanwhile the guy sort of notices, and stammers a bit. It's a scene we've scene a lot, where, before the big guys get involved, a little corporate weasel is sent in as damage control. Well why not do something a little different? How about a big intimidating guy, who's articulate and intelligent (maybe someone like Vin Diesel of BOILER ROOM), come in as damage control, and stare back at Brockovich. Instead we get a recognizable cartoon in a fairly recognizable scene.
The brief bits that feature the victims of the PG and E scandal (a scandal that I'm just realizing I haven't yet gone into, so here's a quick, fragmented summary for those of you who chose to read what I put in the parenthesis: company lies, water unhealthy, people sick + need money = law suit) are common as well. In one instance Soderbergh goes in for a slow, extraneous, extreme close-up of a cancer stricken youngster. Isn't there another way he could have conveyed the emotion, rather than doing what every director does when dealing with sickness: close-ups of sad faces. I dunno, maybe stuff like that is needed in big studio films, but surely Soderbergh could have imbued his victims with some of the multi-faceted character traits he gives nearly everyone else. Then I recall PATCH ADAMS, a movie so saccharine I had to shower after, and I can imagine what BROCKOVICH would be like in the hands of Tom Shadyac, that films director, or even Rob Reiner, who seems to be slowly losing all the talent he once had on a film by film basis.
But I doubt audiences will even care about the details Soderbegh plugs in, since the film would probably be just as successful if it was directed by a studio hack who would give it no personality. Audiences are like that, they go to see their favorite stars in familiar stories, and they generally don't care to be challenged. Of course BROCKOVICH doesn't challenge anybody, but it does raise the bar a bit on the quintessential star picture. I liked it, but I would have really liked it if Soderbergh aimed just an itsy bit higher.
http://www.geocities.com/incongruity98 Reeling (Ron Small)
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