One Bad Ass Woman

Rating: 9/10 (29 May 2015)

I'll admit, even I'm jealous of her. She's blunt, unapologetic, strong willed, independent, hardworking, and maybe a little hotheaded and manipulative. But still, this is one film all the hardcore feminists will want to see. The movie Erin Brockovich chronicles the life of, you've guessed it, Erin Brokovich, played by the amazing and talented Julia Roberts. This drama is based on the true story of Brokovich who, with no legal background of her own, helped win the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit.
Erin Brockovich is a hardworking single mother of three young kids living in Southern California. In the opening scene, one sees Brokavich across from what appears to be a doctor. Brokavich explains she has kids and because of them she's learned a lot about medical procedures. Much to no one's surprise, she doesn't land the job. Immediately after she leaves the job interview she gets hit in her car at an intersection. Cue suspense. Well, this movie isn't a suspense film, but with an opening couple of scenes like these, one would hope for some plot twists. However, what really happens is that she ends up losing the personal injury lawsuit that resulted from the crash, which she claims wasn't her fault, and in thousands of dollars of debt, she is desperate for a job.
Brockovich ultimately asks her gray-haired lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), if he can offer her a job. He reluctantly gives her work as a file clerk in his office, despite her inappropriate cursing and outfits. During work one day Brockovich runs across some files for a case that was previously filed against the company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). Brockovich, determined, starts investigating into the cases and visits people in Hinkley, California, to hear the first hand accounts of chrom 6 poisoning.
She manipulatively persuades Masry to let her continue to do further research, but in doing so sacrifices spending time with her kids who end up being taken care of by her pseudo boyfriend and once unlucky neighbor George, (Aaron Eckhart). She discovers, however, that the PG&E Company has been purposely poisoning Hinkley's water supply, and covering up the fact that they were illegally doing so. This has what has been threatening the health of the entire community surrounding the plant where hexavalent chromium was found running off from the sites. For those of you people who don't know much about science (don't worry, I'm one of them) hexavalent chromium or (chrom 6) is very harmful to human and animal life. It causes chronic headaches, nosebleeds, bone deterioration, and cancers, all of which were reported by multiple residents of Hinkley. One scene that was heartbreaking was a slow zooming in of a girl around the age of 7 who appears to have cancer due to chrom 6 poisoning. Remembering that this story is based on true events, I can't help to think that this actually happened to someone, let alone a young child. It brought tears to my eyes.
Do Brockovich and Masry end up winning the case? Well you'll have to watch all of the 131 minutes in order to find out. That's one downside to the movie- the length. Some scenes tend to draw out, but this movie is about a legal case, and those aren't really an edge-of-your-seat kind of thriller. However, the music complemented the pace of the movie and added suspension to some of the scenes. This movie is also rated R because of the foul language, so parents, don't let your kids watch this movie. But if you're a cool Mom, have your daughters watch this movie when they are teenagers and tell them that even they too can become something awesome like Brockovich. But don't teach them that using their cleavage, like she does in the movie, to persuade men is appropriate.
Another reason this movie didn't get a full 10 stars is because there just wasn't enough romance. Maybe the writers (Richard LaGravenese and Susannah Grant) and the director (Steven Soderbergh) wanted to focus more on the full legal story than on Brockovich's romance with George. But as a sucker for good romance films, I wish there was more steamy scenes, if you know what I mean. The directors tried adding some more chemistry scenes between Brockovich and George but it still wasn't enough, at least for me. I wouldn't label this movie as a comedy either; the scenes are too intense to bring one even remotely close to a laugh. The movie in its entirety, however, was very well written and flowed nicely between scenes, adding to the fluidity of the film.
Erin Brockovich herself makes an appearance in the movie as the waiter Julia in one of the first opening scenes. It is reported that the real Erin Brockovich sold the rights to her story to Universal Studios for a sum of $100,000. That's a lot of money, but given all that she sacrificed, she deserves it. Whether or not some of the details of her life, like the fact that she was Miss Wichita or actually used her cleavage to get what she wanted, is true or not, Julia Roberts does an outstanding job playing this role, which she even won an Oscar for.
Ultimately, this is a film you'll want to see. If you like strong female roles, you'll love Erin Brockovich. Ed Masry says during a scene when Erin Brockovich is the last one at work along with himself, "You're a girl. Why aren't you out to lunch with the other girls?" She responds, "I guess I'm not the right kind." This statement pretty much sums up the kind of person Miss Brockovich is, in real life and as portrayed by Julia Roberts. This movie will give you the confidence boost you might need, cause I know it did that for me.