"Court Rules in Favor of 'Brockovich'"
by Scott Mantz

"Erin Brockovich"
Julia Roberts, Albert Finney
Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Legal eagles! Albert Finney and Julia Roberts take on corporate America in "Erin Brockovich"

Studio heads are of the mindset that Academy members have a short term memory and cannot remember anything they've seen before September. So it's no surprise that the Fall is when the studios release their so-called Oscar contenders. The fact is, a great performance is a great performance, and people will remember it no matter what time of the year they see it. On the eve of the telecast for the 72nd Annual Academy Awards, it seems somehow appropriate that a new film is released that just might contain the first surefire nominee for ceremony number 73. In what is by far the best role of her career, Julia Roberts gives the first Oscar-worthy performance of the Millennium in "Erin Brockovich".

It isn't easy being Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts). She's a twice divorced single mother of three who can't pay her bills and can't get a job. Her luck goes from bad to worse after she is blind-sided at an intersection (not her fault). Struggling attorney Ed Masrey (Albert Finney) handles Erin's case, but thanks to her penchant for revealing outfits and foul language, she loses. She practically begs guilt-ridden Ed to give her a job--any job--so she can turn her life around, and while filing away old real estate documents, she finds medical reports mixed in with the rest of the paperwork. After some investigation, she discovers that the water in the small town of Hinkley, CA has been contaminated by the nearby industrial plant of Pacific Gas & Electric, causing it's residents to come down with diseases and sometimes fatal ailments. In what appears to be an impossible case, Erin seems like the most unlikely candidate to pull the town together to file a lawsuit against PG&E and make them pay for the wounds that they inflicted.

If this story sounds familiar, it should. It bears a striking resemblance to another similarly-themed 1998 courtroom flick "A Civil Action". Like that film, the focus here is on a big corporation covering up its mistakes at the expense of the residents of a small town. Unlike that film, not too much action takes place in the courtroom. In fact, other than one brief scene, none of "Erin Brockovich" features any of the clichéd aspects of a typical courtroom drama. While we're still bombarded with complex explanations of the damage caused by the toxic chemicals, the main focus here is on the human element and the emotional connection to the victims. Erin is drawn to these people because she is one of them. She relates to them because she's been there. That's what gives her the emotional connection that other attorneys clearly lack. Her motivation is not to simply win a settlement and call it a day, but to hold the company accountable for each and every one of the people who've been affected by their negligence.

"Brockovich" finds both Julia Roberts and director Steven Soderbergh at the top of their game. What makes this even more incredible is the hectic work schedules both artists have endured. This is Soderbergh's third picture in less than two years (after "Out of Sight" and "The Limey") and Robert's third in merely 11 months (after "Notting Hill" and "Runaway Bride"). Soberbergh is clearly one of the most experimental directors of his day, but this is by far his most commercially accessible film to date. Just as Michael Mann was able to infuse "The Insider" (another "David-versus-Goliath" story based on true events) with human drama and engrossing storytelling, Soderbergh takes what could have easily been a droll subject matter and keeps it compelling.

Of course, none of this could have happened without Julia Roberts. She takes the bull by the horns, attacking her role with such fierce conviction that you simply cannot imagine another actress playing her. This is undoubtedly one of the strongest female roles to come along in years, and Roberts knows this. She is first and foremost a loving mother, but she is also intelligent, hard-working, dedicated, sensitive, and very, very sexy (what a wardrobe!). She's a survivor to the extreme, and her street smarts keep her one step ahead of the game. By the time everyone else is ready to play, she's already won.

Albert Finney also puts in a fine performance as the crusty, tired, well-meaning attorney who takes Erin under his wing and fights for her cause. Roberts and Finney have a unique love-hate, father-daughter, boss-employee relationship, and they play so well off each other that they shine on every level. Aaron Eckhart continues his impressive up-and-coming career playing the kind-hearted biker dude who Roberts falls for. Roberts may be sacrificing time away from her kids to work on the trial, but Eckhart is sacrificing time away from his life to watch her kids.

"Erin Brockovich" is an incredible crowd-pleaser that thankfully doesn't cater to the lowest common denominator. It's intelligent, it's humorous, and it's gripping. It may be rough out there, but this is one case that proves that a lot of hard work and determination can eventually pay off. Sometimes, good things do happen to good people, and come this time next year, maybe something good (in the form of a little gold statuette) will happen to Julia Roberts.

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