The Ultimate Julia Roberts Movie

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2019)

"Erin Brockovich" is truly the film that truly made Julia roberts a star being that she transitioned herself from a star in romantic comedies, here she makes the move to starring in a movie that won her over with the fans and with the Academy Awards in 2001.
Starring in titular biopic of a paralegal confronting corrupt businesses and exposing their fraudulent ways without a care for her reputation in the process. The sides of Brockovich are handled in three integral parts. Her crass ways are never vulgar, just high-spirited. She may dress with questionable taste, but she has a heart of gold. If she berates and verbally mocks other people it's not that she's inconsiderate or mean, but because a lot of the corporations she's taking on hire some of the most underhanded and corrupt people on this planet. And for a bonus, she may act like she's naive, but we realize that she even hoodwinks the viewers revealing she's anything but.
"Erin Brockovich" epitomizes every character that Roberts has starred in since she made her debut in the mid 1980's. The character of Brockovich herself is the atypical figure that the film industry idolizes. Roberts was rightfully cast as she can talk tough and smart and still be attractive at the same time.
The movie centres around this young paralegal who is a divorced, single mother of three children who's journey itself deserves to be written on paper. Though her job is not all that exciting or heavily paid, but was stunned when she found out that a major corporation like Pacific Gas and Electric were offering to underhandedly pay medical bills in the California town where their offices run. She goes undercover to further investigate with all the essential documents needed for a class action lawsuit and exploiting this corporation that are responsible for contaminating the water which has contributed to many civilians who have contacted several health problems.
In her grinding research, she has met a hairless little girl who had to have chemotherapy, a lady battling breast cancer and her husband who's dying of lymphoma. In one of the more pivotal cases she tells a woman named Donna Jensen (Marg Helgenberger) that what's ailing her is not from bad luck, but bad water which led to her getting her kids out of the water.
Under the direction of Steven Soderbergh and based on actual events, this movie stands out as a true underdog story of how a small time paralegal goes through great lengths to take down a big corporation that has investments raging in $28 billion. Albert Finney plays lawyer Ed Masry who will have to go though great lengths to exploit this company for who they really are. Nobody ever said this case was going to be easy. Granted that Roberts usually handles performances on her own merits, but here it's Soderbergh that calls the shots plus he has to in order for this film to work and being this is not a fictionalized character she's portraying.
If Roberts took control of the character, this movie would end up falling victim to satire. Though she carries the heavy cargo throughout the movie, her emotions have to be spot-on and the camera's attention is based off of her. The other cast members have to remain frozen until Roberts has the final camera-shot of her. Whether she's happy, angry or in crocodile tears, we the audience are cued how to react. Roberts has a reputation of being quite self-indulgent and though Soderbergh gives her that freedom to some extent, to the point where it really becomes Julia's world and everyone else is just secondary.
Soderbergh does assure that the supporting characters are not underused here. Finney's character Masry is strong here though his reactions are mostly to stay disgruntled by his head-strong clerk, but underneath that hidden exterior is a man with a heart of gold who's contemplating retirement, but her presence does give him some strength. Veanne Cox is outstanding in some low-key comic relief as an uppity lawyer who's big fault was to usurp the determined Brockovich.
The only weak scenes is when Erin's personal life is added to the story. And though Aaron Eckhart was very good as the George, the kindly biker who looks after Erin's kids all day. Sure it adds character development to some extent, but other times it can be a bit of overkill. The personal scenes were at the most quite mundane. Fortunately the lawsuit is still the primary focus and this is what people came in to see even going far as to say they would rather watch the lawsuit scenes than Roberts gracing us with her emotions.