Erin Brockovich
Date: March 26, 2000
Cast:
Erin Brockovich - Julia Roberts
Ed Masry - Albert Finney
George - Aaron Eckhart
Tom - Marg
Helgenberger
Director: Steven Soderburgh
These days, it seems the
prevailing winds of the Hollywood mindset lean towards the
extravagant and complex. Witness, the multi-layered
plotlines and effects laden films that have graced the screens
lately and it appears that the conventional wisdom says, more is
more. While these films have been successful, they can
sometimes become bogged down in their complexity while trying to
entertain. Julia Roberts latest effort, Erin Brockovich is
a perfect example of how simple it is to make a great movie.
Basically, stop trying so hard, and tell a simple story, as it
happened, and the results may amaze you.
The movie tells the story of Brockovich, a struggling single mother who stumbles upon to potentially life threatening situation while working a temporary job for a law firm. She researches, perseveres, and survives, the way real people, not Hollywood stereotypes would. The brilliance of this movie is in the way it doesn’t feel the need to embellish, enhance, or over emphasize anything. The characters are simple, real people, reacting to, and living in situations that we can imagine ourselves in.
There are two things this
movie causes that I absolutely love. First of all, it makes you
want to learn more about everything happening onscreen. Movies
based upon true stories should do that. I wanted to know
what Erin was doing now, what happened after the case etc. I
had similar mindset after The Hurricane (for
validation) and Boys Don’t Cry (for
sheer curiosity at what had happened) Secondly, the movie
never intentionally manipulates your heartstrings, but rather
lets each event take its own effect without feeling the need to
hammer it home. When Erin’s happy, so are we, and we
know why. When she gets excited about a lead, our hearts
race, when she’s frustrated over bills, we can relate and
are frustrated as well. Basically, Julia/Erin embodies
everything we are, have been, or want to be. The fact that
she does it so well is wherein the majority of this movies
success lies
Julia has never really
been a favorite of mine. It’s not that I’ve ever
disliked her in anything, but she’s never been the sole
cause of me running out and seeing a movie. However, as Bob
Dylan once wrote, the times, they are a changing, because this
movie makes me look at her in a new light. In order for
Brockovich to be a success, she would have to pull off a varied
range of emotions and reactions. Failure would doom the
movie, since she’s in every scene, however success would
generate what we get onscreen. The way she goes from
desperate to loving, to innocent, to sarcastic and sexy,
embodying all, never over doing any, is the stuff that awards are
made of. It’s called range, and to carry a movie like
she needed to, it is a necessity. I stand up and applaud you in
all your spunk, spirit, jubilation and tears. Her chemistry
with Albert Finney is wonderful as well. The two interacted,
and played off each other, as you expect teacher, and pupil to do.
Another well-written aspect of the film was the supporting cast.
These may not be able to break a film, if done badly, but are
definitely noticed, when they are done well. Aaron Eckhart,
in the three movies I have seen him in now, shows an incredible
amount of range and I’m not sure if he’s fully
appreciated for how great an actor he is. He has gone from
one of the biggest jerks that I’ve ever seen (In the Company
of Men, see it!!) to a wimpy loser (Your Friends and Neighbors)
to this role, as the softhearted biker and love interest of
Roberts. Normally, forced love stories i.e. a romance plot
just because there are two people in the same age group
interacting, bother me greatly. Again however I cannot harp
this point enough, it seems, and is, real in every sense of the
word. It is a testament to the performers and writers.
Also strong in supporting roles were Marg Helgenberger and Cherry
Jones (the only watchable thing about Cradle Will Rock) as
parents/citizens of this poisoned town. These building
blocks only strengthened the base upon which this movie was built.
There were several points in this movie that caused me to laugh, cry, and want to stand up and cheer, as I did in the end. I give my compliments to Susannah Grant for writing a simple, yet smart and effective movie. She does this by keeping it real, which proves that less is indeed more. Some criticism may come from the fact that for the most part it follows the basic storyline of an underdog/legal drama. You can see everywhere this movie is going and frankly, you don’t care. The reason? Because you know this is the way it really happened. This proves that emotions need not be hammered, nor facts manipulated, in order to make your point in a story.
Ultimately, Erin Brockovich is a demonstration of what can be done when you stick to the basics of story telling. There’s a line in Magnolia that deals with things that seemingly only happen in movies. It states these things had to have happened in real life, in order for them to be interpreted on screen. Erin Brockovich is true proof of that fact. It never goes over the top with schmaltzy emotion, but rather lets the power of the events take its course, as they did in reality. See this one for the smiles, the laughs, and ultimately how good it will make you feel afterwards. I felt like I could conquer the world, I felt like anything is possible, and most of all, I felt that good movies can be made in Hollywood by just calling it like you see it. ($$$1/2 out of $$$$)
Agree? Disagree, Questions? Comments?
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