Badly presented "true story" completely lacks credibility

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2000)

There's no way you could fail to be aware that this is a 'well meaning' movie. Unfortunately it's also a badly scripted, sloppily directed movie, which completely destroys its own credibility in the first ten minutes, and then does absolutely nothing to re-establish any credibility for the rest of its excessive length. Let me make myself quite clear here - I'm not commenting whatsoever on the facts of the "true story" on which this movie is based... that's another issue entirely (but listening to the real Erin Brockovich on the DVD... now I don't claim to know all the facts or anything... but she was sure infinitely more credible than anything in the film itself). The movie doesn't need any facts to refute it - it's so flawed that it thoroughly refutes itself. If you're the kind of person who finds the incoherent and self-contradictory ramblings of drunks on public transit entirely fascinating and believable, then this movie is for you. Everyone else - forget it... unless you really need another reminder of how obscene it is that Julia Roberts is pretty close to being the highest paid actor on the planet (not that she can't act - she can, up to a point... she's just nowhere near that good). And just in case you saw the trailers and the posters and were wondering - no Ms. Roberts' stunt mammaries are not enough to save the picture.