No-frills David & Goliath story told in straightforward fashion...

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2002)

There's nothing exciting about "Erin Brockovitch" except Julia Roberts' fiery, Oscar-winning lead performance, playing a single mother of three who gets a job in a law firm and proceeds to take on a huge corporation responsible for contaminating water in a southern California city. The residents of that town aren't given any real shadings, we meet most of them on the fly, and Erin's co-workers and boss are a typical office bunch. I'm surprised that Steven Soderbergh chose to direct this; it affords him no opportunities to get flashy. Roberts, on the other hand, gets to act all over the place, and it's nice to see her doing well in a role that requires more than just her sass and beauty (except for the final sequence with she and Albert Finney, which is artificial). Overall, an interesting and entertaining true-story, but it's no "Norma Rae". **1/2 from ****