Julia Roberts At Her Best

Rating: 9/10 (28 July 2019)

AFI 100 Cheers. AFI 100 Heroes/Villains.
"Erin Brockovich" is a pleasant movie and one of the best projects from director Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh is a talented filmmaker who is able to direct movies from a wide range of genres. There are the "Ocean's" movies of course, which have a glamorous style of their own in terms of editing and prove to be fun and easy to watch. There are also strange, morbid and overly dark films such as "Unsane" which has a strange gimmick of being shot entirely on iPhone cameras. But somewhere in the middle, there is "Brockovich," a movie from the start of the millennium starring a talented cast including Aaron Eckhart, Albert Finney, and, who can forget in her Oscar-winning role, Julia Roberts.
This is such a solid character-driven movie, and almost every scene is fun to watch thanks to Julia Roberts. Act one is really interesting because you would not think to connect a traffic collision to the idea of a character getting a job, but that is exactly what happens. The titular character, Erin, is shown in a job interview at the start of the movie, and she has the right personality for the interview but lacks the experience. We feel for her as we learn she has three kids, she has been divorced twice, and she is basically broke. Once she gets in a traffic collision, she has trouble contacting the lawyer assigned to her case, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), so she figures if the people at the law firm cannot do their job, she will show up and do it for them. And we see that bold persistence in Erin throughout the duration of the film.
Erin is the type of human we should all aspire to be because her persistence and loyalty allows her to have a better work ethic even than her superiors. She does investigating on her own when she is given permission (barely) by Ed Masry, but this involves her doing her work away from the firm for a period of time, and she gets fired since everybody assumes she just left the job to "have fun." After all, most of the women working at that law firm have expressed their disliking of her due to the way that Erin dresses. But that is the thing about Erin - she could care less that she dresses in a revealing manner. It even helps her get information on the case she is working on. Masry asks Erin how she was able to obtain so much information that would help their case. Her response? "They're called boobs, Ed."
In terms of filmmaking, "Erin Brockovich" is nothing that is going to be remembered for its visuals or editing. It plays out like a typical movie - there are no iconic shots, there is no spectacular editing style, and the strongest aspects of the film are clearly its story and the performance by Julia Roberts. It is such a joy to watch Roberts in this performance and it definitely makes the movie feel more like a comedy than a serious drama. Audiences can probably look at it either way though since it is, above all, an inspiring flick.
Julia Roberts has never been better and she completely sells the movie.
9/10