Trash

Rating: 1/10 (15 February 2002)

This film is simply trash, much like the woman it is about. ERIN BROCKOVICH is a horrible movie. Whoever thought that a woman with a bad taste in clothing, a vulgar mouth that spews obsceneties every time it opens, and continuous self-absorption could be the basis for a quality movie? This movie tries to illustrate Erin Brockovich as a kind person with a good heart and will stop at nothing to help people and to make things right. What a load of SH**! Steven Soderbergh tries to fool us into believing that Brockovich is a good-natured woman trying to help the disease-striken residents within the area of PG&E. Any wise viewer would look past this and see the truth, which is that Erin Brockovich is nothing but a bitch with a dirty mouth, a fraud, a dumbass, and not to mention a bad mother, which is well displayed when she leaves her children with a man she doesn't even know (George, who she treats like crap, even when they're together). Another thing I couldn't stand about Erin was her selfishness and ungreatful, rude attitude that she displayed for her boss. It seemed that every half hour she was asking for a raise, didn't seem to care when Masery was facing financial problems as a result of the lawsuit, and showed no respect for him at any point in the movie. I guess she thought that she was the only one working her ass off in this whole thing.
And another thing that really annoyed me was that this movie was praised by so many people! The movie had no good taste much like the title character. How this movie was praised by the Oscars is the worst of all things about this movie.
1.)Best Picture. PLEASE! This movie was probably one of the worst of the year! It had no place to be in the running as the best of the year. Its spot could've easily been taken by Almost Famous.
2.)Best Screenplay. Susannah Grant may have had a remote deserving for an Oscar nomination if her screenplay was true to the facts, which would've illustrated that Erin Brockowitch truly is a money-hungary fraud who dresses like a wench.
3.)Best Director. Soderbergh is a great director. But it was nothing out of the ordinary here. He did deserve a nomination for TRAFFIC,which he won. But the Academy shouldn't have squandered yet another nomination on something that was not worth it. 4.- Best Supporting Actor. This was the only deserving nomination for this movie. Albert Finney brings us the only likeable main character in this movie, and serves as the only bright spot in the film, except for maybe Marg Helgenburger. He made the movie somewhat watchable with his strong, compelling performance. 5.- And now, last and certainly the least, BEST FU**ING ACTRESS! Julia Roberts did a bad/OK job here. Her performance might have been credible if she didn't accept all of these accolades. All she did in the movie was flash her boobs, most of which were just a push-up bra, lash out at just about everyone in the movie for no good reason, and put in a sob, sympathetic facial expression, or a few tears in just to soften people up (didn't work on me Julia!). The fact that she thought so much of her performance as to actually accept a nomination and then the award itself just shows how greedy she is. Her nomination was a complete waste, and she couldn't hold a candle to any of those in the running. Her nomination should've easily gone to one more deserving, such as Bjork for DANCER IN THE DARK. The academy truly proved that it was out to boost egos and careers instead of rewarding for individual achievement. The fact that every major awards organization (the oscars, golden globes, sag awards) and several critics associations gave their best actress honor to Roberts for her effortless performance instead of the true best actress of 2000, Ellen Burstyn, shows just how scandalous Hollywood is. Roberts won the awards because she's the most bankable star in the business. If these organizations did what they claimed, they would've awarded Ellen Burstyn for her heartbreaking performance in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. Burstyn reaches out to audiences and rips their hearts out of their chests with her performance, which is unarguably the best in years, if ever, from an actress. Not to mention the fact that Burstyn went through hell for her part, and still few gave her the recognition she deserves because they felt Julia should've won everything because she's younger, prettier(well, not really), and more people like her movies (yeah, sure: remember, Burstyn was the lead in THE EXORCIST [one of the most influential, scariest, and most talked about movies of all time in which she gave one of her best performances], not to mention her great performances in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE [for which the academy awarded her], and SAME TIME, NEXT YEAR just to name a few.)
Overall, I give this an imdb rating of 1/10. If I could give it a zero, I would.