Ride that vehicle, girl.

Rating: Null/10 (2 June 2000)

This is another movie for all the really big Julia Roberts fans. Hey, I like her as much as the next guy. She's easy on the eyes, and never plays dumb. Girls like her, guys like her, and so do parents. Seems like she hasn't got an enemy in the world. We love her. We root for her. We're on her side. We have to get our Julia fix three or four times every twelve months to get through our movie-watching year. Everything you could want in one of her pictures is played for all it's worth in Erin Brockovich. It's the kind of movie that defines the term `star vehicle.' Not only is she the main character, but she's in every single scene, and everybody else is just there to make her look good. This is the way to market your star-power and rake it in at the box office... again.
It's based on a true story, if you haven't heard, and is about a plucky, twice divorced, mother of three, who dresses like a hooker, but manages to talk her way into a job working for a lawyer, played perfectly by Albert Finney. I guess she figures all women would dress slutty if they looked as good as she does. At work, she finds out there's more to one of his neglected pro bono cases than first thought, and they eventually file suit against a big California power company for poisoning the water in a rural community with hexevalent chromium and trying to get away with it. With no law degree or training, she works very hard and uses her `charms' ("They're called boobs, Ed.") and `people skills' to fight for what's right. She's bitchy to almost everybody (`Bite me, Krispy Kreme!') except the people of the town, to whom she's as sweet as can be. George, played admirably by Aaron Eckhart, is her only romantic interest (next door neighbor/babysitter/biker dude boyfriend) who gets the good and bad of both sides of her personality. The real Erin B. has a cameo role as a waitress.
There's talk about Julia being considered for another Academy Award nomination because of this movie. I don't know, that's a possibility, but I'd rather see her actually win an Oscar in a more complete film. I'm sure she has her pick of scripts. I'd like to someday see her in a gritty human drama where she doesn't care what she looks like and just acts her buns off. I think she can do it. The director, Steven Soderberg, concentrated so much on keeping the camera on her and the wardrobe, that something about the rest of it didn't hold up. I wonder which is better, getting a 20 million dollar paycheck for one movie, or getting an Oscar. That's something most of us will never know. I did enjoy much of the movie, maybe a little more than when I saw her play herself in Notting Hill. I never felt it was a waste of time or money. And I did get my Julia fix, and that's the main thing. E-mail and comments are welcome.