Though directed with restraint and a good sense of timing, the film trades heavily on a script which omits generic detail in favour of a starmaking portrait of a fiercely independent modern American woman, which Roberts rises to with gusto, pathos, and humour.
Secondary characters remain secondary.
In one sense, this is a perfectly legitimate reading of the story of Erin Brockovich. Given Grant's choice to steer away from the standard-issue courtroom scenes and focus more firmly on the interpersonal relationships, it plays somewhat closer to melodrama than a legal and ethical thriller. This steers it away from the likes of The China Syndrome or A Civil Action , or, perhaps more directly, Silkwood and Norma Rae . It also makes it a film which is likely to appeal to females more than males, foregrounding emotions and turning on themes of trust and commitment rather than the typically 'weighty' ones which this genre usually relies upon. This does make it quite a different film from any of these others however, and it certainly lacks a sense of the personal danger of a conspiracy film, or even of the broader social significance of the case which a documentary might emphasise, which hurts it.