Erin Brockovich (film)

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Erin Brockovich

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by Danny DeVito
Stacey Sher
Michael Shamberg
Gail Lyon
John Hardy
Written by Susannah Grant
Starring Julia Roberts
Albert Finney
Aaron Eckhart
Music by Thomas Newman
Cinematography Ed Lachman
Editing by Anne V. Coates
Distributed by Universal Studios (USA)
Columbia Pictures (non-USA)
Release date(s) March 17, 2000
Running time 130 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $51,000,000
Gross revenue $256,271,286 (worldwide)

Erin Brockovich is a 2000 drama film which dramatizes the story of Erin Brockovich's first fight against the American West Coast energy giant Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). The film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and starred Julia Roberts, who won the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award, and BAFTA for Best Actress. It is based on a true story and the real Erin Brockovich has a cameo appearance as a waitress named Julia.

The film was produced and distributed in North America by Universal Studios, and was distributed overseas by Columbia Pictures[1].

Contents

[edit] Plot

Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts) was an unemployed single mother of three children who, after losing a personal injury lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in, asks her lawyer, Edward L. Masry (Albert Finney), if he can find her a job in compensation for the loss. Ed gives her work as a file clerk in his office, and she runs across some files on a pro bono case involving medical records in real-estate files and PG&E offering to purchase the home of Hinkley, California resident Donna Jensen.

Erin begins digging into the particulars of the case, convinced that the facts simply do not add up, and persuades Ed to allow her further research. After investigation, she discovers a systematic cover-up of the industrial poisoning (hexavalent chromium) of the town of Hinkley's water supply that threatens the health of an entire community. She finds that PG&E is responsible for the extensive illnesses that the residents of Hinkley have been diagnosed with and fights to bring the company to justice.

Erin meets a mysterious man in a bar that claimed to Erin to have destroyed documents at PG&E, and discovers a 1966 document that ties a conversation of a corporate executive in the San Francisco PG&E headquarters to the Hinkley station that knew the water was contaminated but didn't do anything about it and advised to keep it a secret from the Hinkley neighborhood. The evidence was examined by a judge without a jury and PG&E was court ordered to pay a settlement amount of $333 million that was divided among the 634 plaintiffs.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Reaction

[edit] Box office

Erin Brockovich was released on March 17, 2000 in 2,848 theaters and grossed $28.1 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $125.6 million in North America and $130.7 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $256.3 million.[2]

[edit] Reviews

The majority of critics responded favorably towards the film. It holds a certified "Fresh" rating of 83% on film review website Rotten Tomatoes and 73 metascore on Metacritic. Newsweek's David Ansen began his review with "Julia Roberts is flat-out terrific in Erin Brockovich." Even John Simon conceded "yes, she can act." However, film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a two-star review, wrote, "There is obviously a story here, but Erin Brockovich doesn't make it compelling. The film lacks focus and energy, the character development is facile and thin".[3] In his review for the New York Times, A.O. Scott wrote, "After proving, for about 40 minutes, what a marvelous actress she can be, Ms. Roberts spends the next 90 content to be a movie star. As the movie drags on, her performance swells to bursting with moral vanity and phony populism".[4] Peter Travers, in his review for Rolling Stone, wrote, "Roberts shows the emotional toll on Erin as she tries to stay responsible to her children and to a job that has provided her with a first taste of self-esteem".[5] In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B+" rating and wrote, "it's a delight to watch Roberts, with her flirtatious sparkle and undertow of melancholy, ricochet off Finney's wonderfully jaded, dry-as-beef-jerky performance as the beleaguered career attorney who knows too much about the loopholes of his profession to have much faith left in it".[6]

[edit] Accuracy

While the general facts of the story are accurate, there are some minor discrepancies between actual events and the movie, as well as a number of controversial and disputed issues more fundamental to the case. In the film, Erin Brockovich appears to deliberately use her cleavage to seduce the water board attendant to allow her to access the documents. Brockovich-Ellis has acknowledged that her cleavage may have had an influence, but denies consciously trying to influence individuals in this way.[7] In the film, Ed Masry represents Erin Brockovich in the car crash case. In reality, it was Jim Vititoe.[8] Brockovich had never been Miss Wichita. She had been Miss Pacific Coast. According to Brockovich, this detail was deliberately changed by Soderbergh as he thought it was "cute" to have her be beauty queen of the region from which she came.[7] One of the plaintiffs, Carol Smith, accused the movie of being "mostly lies".[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-54329296.html
  2. ^ "Erin Brockovich". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=erinbrockovich.htm. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  3. ^ Ebert, Roger (March 17, 2000). "Erin Brockovich". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20000317/REVIEWS/3170303/1023. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 
  4. ^ Scott, A.O (March 17, 2000). "Erin Brockovich: High Ideals, Higher Heels". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/031700erin-film-review.html. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  5. ^ Travers, Peter (February 9, 2001). "Erin Brockovich". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/movie/5947601/review/5947602/erin_brockovich. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  6. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (March 24, 2000). "Erin Brockovich". Entertainment Weekly. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,275735,00.html. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  7. ^ a b c "Chasing the Frog - Erin Brockovich - Questioning the Story". Chasing the Frog. http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/brockovich.php. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  8. ^ Masry & Vititoe - Erin Brockovitch resumé

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Films directed by Steven Soderbergh
1980s
1990s
Kafka (1991) • King of the Hill (1993) • The Underneath (1995) • Gray's Anatomy (1996) • Schizopolis (1996) • Out of Sight (1998) • The Limey (1999)
2000s
Erin Brockovich (2000) • Traffic (2000) • Ocean's Eleven (2001) • Full Frontal (2002) • Solaris (2002) • Ocean's Twelve (2004) • Bubble (2005) • The Good German (2006) • Ocean's Thirteen (2007) • Che (2008) • The Girlfriend Experience (2009) • The Informant! (2009)
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