Sort of good

Rating: 6/10 (4 October 2004)

This film really takes the best out of Julia Roberts: normally an awfully bad actress, she is, in the role of this bitchy, tackily-dressed proud mother-of-three, almost (but not quite) sort of good. The film is also a revelation in that it is the only Julia Roberts film with a somewhat sensible plot: amidst the wan ("Pretty woman"), banal ("Notting Hill") and thoroughly idiotic ("Sleeping with the enemy") movies in which we are used to see her, "Erin Brockovich" shines like a beacon. Still, there is far too much single-mother act, and far too much shrew-act in this movie for it to be thoroughly enjoyable, or even original. Some details are cute, though, like the abominable bad taste with which the protagonist is systematically dressed; the plot is mildly interesting, but its development is far too legal-oriented (a very common fault in Hollywood movies) while it could be a bit more centered on the human and ecological aspects of having an entire town poisoned by chromium VI. Altogether, this is an educational movie, which people with too much trust in corporate America should see, and which is certainly more interesting than the latest serially produced action movie. But don't expect a classic or anything like that: this is strictly a watch-once film.