Erin Brockovich

On paper, _Erin_Brockovich_ bears more than a passing resemblance to

1998's _A_Civil_Action_. Both are vehicles for major Hollywood stars

(respectively, Julia Roberts and John Travolta); both are based on true

stories; and both stories are about a legal crusader helping the

residents of a small town battle a large corporation that has been

contaminating the local water supply. Despite these striking

similarities, there remains one key difference: while treating its

serious subject matter with the gravity it deserves, _Erin_Brockovich_

also manages to be a lot of fun.

That fact owes a lot to the film's vibrant title character, one that I

imagine even Hollywood would have difficulty creating if reality hadn't.

Erin (Roberts) is a vivacious, twice-divorced mother of three who, as we

meet her, is not doing a very good job selling herself at a job

interview. The scene is short, but its few minutes vividly depict the

delicate balance that Roberts and director Steven Soderbergh achieves

throughout the film's entire two-hour-plus running time. The scene is

undeniably funny, its humor heightened by Erin's trashy mode of dress and

the increasing desperation of her words. But one laughs at the situation

and not her; in Roberts' eyes one can catch the underlying sadness and

seriousness of the situation, plus the gradual awareness that she's

fighting a losing battle. For the most part, _Erin_Brockovich_ plays in

a similar way; one is consistently engaged on a purely--for lack of a

better term--"entertainment" level, but providing an underlying

foundation is something that lends the proceedings a bit more dramatic

weight.

The major "something" in _Erin_Brockovich_ is the aforementioned case

involving the residents of Hinkley, California, whose water supply has

long been contaminated by the large PG&E corporation. Through some

not-terribly-convincing plot machinations, Erin gets a job as an aide to

attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney), and it is through her work there that

she gets personally involved with the plight of the Hinkley citizens,

many of whom are suffering grave illness due to prolonged exposure to the

poisoned water.

Erin is brassy, smartmouthed, and, most important of all, not a lawyer,

and the bulk of the film's enjoyment derives from the ballsy, carefree

way she conducts her research and life in general. She is also

unabashedly a woman, not afraid to call upon her feminine wiles to get

her way--allowing Roberts to be more brazenly sexual than she has since

her career-making turn in _Pretty_Woman_. Roberts also has never been so

ideally cast since that film; the kookiness of her character gives her

ample opportunity to flash that trademark smile of hers (not to mention a

few other assets) while giving her a chance to stretch comfortably as an

actress.