One Big Heap of Fake, But an Awfully Entertaining One

Rating: 7/10 (2 June 2006)

What's up with Steven Soderbergh? How can the same director make an intelligent and complex, and decidedly non-mainstream film, like "Traffic" and this high-gloss, populist version of "Norma Rae" in the same year? He makes "Sex, Lies & Videotape," then he makes "Ocean's Twelve," and then he turns around and makes "Bubble." I don't get it. Is he attempting to stretch his versatility as a director, or is he just wildly inconsistent?
"Erin Brockovich" is outrageously ridiculous, and doesn't maintain even the barest grip on reality. It exists solely as an opportunity for Julia Roberts' devoted fans to see her tear up the screen and give anyone standing within 20 feet of her on screen a what-for, but it doesn't really ask her to act. Roberts is further indication that someone's star power is in inverse proportion to his/her talent (see Halle Berry, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston). Roberts would be nothing as an actress (as evidenced by her recent panned Broadway debut) without the fakery of cinema. She needs good lighting, clever editing, expert hair dressers to tame that lion's mane of her's. She's at her best when a director clears everyone else out of her way and lets the camera linger on her in close-up, which is what Soderbergh does here. Compare her's to the feisty performance delivered by Sally Field in "Norma Rae" to see just how unconvincing Roberts is.
But, and this is a big "but," all of that aside, "Erin Brockovich" is enormously entertaining, as these liberal fight-against-the-system movies always are. The film is helped tremendously by Albert Finney, who matches Roberts every step of the way and has a boatload of chemistry with the leading lady. If it weren't for his presence, the Julia Roberts love-fest would become overbearing.
Grade: B+