Erin Brockovich (DVD)

...expecting much…

Erin Brockovich is the true story of, well, Erin Brockovich. A single divorcee, who is the mother of three young children, Matthew 8, Kate 6 and baby Beth aged 10 months. She is intelligent, witty and attractive. But many companies seem reluctant to hire her. Indeed the opening scene is that of her applying for a medical job, but being instantly dismissed, due to the clothes that she wears and the foul language she ...
...example of the prejudice that Erin faces everyday; just because of the clothes she wears. She is extremely poor, with only 74 dollars in the bank, as she often screams. So after being laughed out of many more interviews, she basically bullies her way into the law firm that Ed owns. Telling him that she has three children to feed and he can sack her if it all goes wrong.

Again at work, she faces prejudice; all the other women at the ... more

Anyone, who has read my 28 Days review, will know that I have a great respect for Susannah Grant. I also am very interested in lawyers and cases as that is the profession that I am in, so this movie was an obvious choice for me and when I watched the recent documentary The Real Julia Roberts, it reminded me that the first time I watched this I didn’t give it a fair chance. So I dug it out of my DVD collection and popped into my DVD player, not really expecting much…

Erin Brockovich is the true story of, well, Erin Brockovich. A single divorcee, who is the mother of three young children, Matthew 8, Kate 6 and baby Beth aged 10 months. She is intelligent, witty and attractive. But many companies seem reluctant to hire her. Indeed the opening scene is that of her applying for a medical job, but being instantly dismissed, due to the clothes that she wears and the foul language she uses. When she leaves for this interview, a speeding jaguar hits her. She seeks legal advice from Ed Masry, and takes the case to court, where she is again, dismissed because the driver of the Jag is a doctor and rich and she is in their eyes scum. This is just another example of the prejudice that Erin faces everyday; just because of the clothes she wears. She is extremely poor, with only 74 dollars in the bank, as she often screams. So after being laughed out of many more interviews, she basically bullies her way into the law firm that Ed owns. Telling him that she has three children to feed and he can sack her if it all goes wrong.

Again at work, she faces prejudice; all the other women at the office talk and go out together, but don’t include her in their fun. Whilst Erin is filing a case for Ed another one catches her eye, a Pro Bono case, which is about PG&E buying out the Jensen’s home. She asks whether she can investigate the case further, Ed agrees, so she gets off to work. She quickly discovers that PG&E have been paying for the Jensen’s medical bills, because of chromium they have been putting in the Hickley water. PG&E have assured all the residents that it is fine, and even beneficial to their health. But Erin finds out different. Texevalius Chromium can cause, tumours, cancer, chronic headaches and nose bleeds…

Erin finds out that the 28 billion dollar company have been putting more than the allowed levels of this chromium into the water. So she works tirelessly to bring this case to the for front…………

Erin Brockovich is a story about how one seemingly ordinary person, can touch and make a big difference in 100’s of peoples lives, just by being true to themselves and working hard. It truly is an under dogs story, and one that I’m sure everyone can relate to.

Erin is the kind of person, who isn’t afraid of what people may say about her. I think that has to be respected, sometimes I wish I was like that, free of worrying. She is a hard workingwomen, who isn’t afraid to just ask for help. I like the way that she is portrayed in this movie; after all it is really about her and not the Hickley versus PG&E case. It may not be strictly true to life, but I think that the audience sees this unlikely person go through a journey of grand proportions. If you didn’t know it was a true story, you would almost certainly call it unrealistic.

Ed Masry is probably the character I have the most trouble with. Susannah and Stephen seem to focus so much on developing and forming Erin as a character, there really seems little reason to have this character. Yes he is necessary, but the filmmakers really could of elevated him, by making him a more interesting character, instead of just a stereotypical lawyer who has been jaded by his work.

Aaron Eckhart goes through an appearance change in Erin Brockovich. He plays George, Erin’s new neighbour, who at first comes off as a biker thug but once the audience get to know him, realize that he is a actually someone, who wants to help, and Erin finds that hard to except. He is good with the kids, kind, gentle and seemingly perfect. But will Erin be able to except that not everyone is out to make her life hell?

Julia Roberts won her first Oscar for this role. I can defiantly see why. She is fantastic as the enigmatic Erin. Absolutely brilliant. She understands her character and in turn becomes her character. She deals with the emotional scenes well, but she is also brilliantly feisty when the role calls for it. From what I can imagine, this is a pretty hard role to pull off, after all it is such a change to her usual, safe romantic comedy roles. It was a brave decision for Julia to play this not necessarily likeable role. But it showcased he talents brilliantly and forced audiences to see her in a different light. It also allowed her to do different roles such as Full Frontal, Oceans Eleven and its upcoming sequel Oceans Twelve (all directed by Stephen Soderbergh) and the also upcoming Closer, which has received brilliant reviews.

The reason I don’t like Ed Masry isn’t because of the way Albert Finney portrays him, on the contrary, I think he does some brilliant work with the little source material he has. He is believably hectic and jaded. He does however play it safe a little too much for me, unlike Julia, he doesn’t do anything to make himself noticed. It is a subtle performance, as Albert knows his character is key, and just plays the character down. This is an interesting way to play the character, but I don’t think that it is wholly successful. Albert has been in other films such as big Fish, Traffic (also directed by Stephen Soderbergh) and Breakfast Of Champions.

As I said before Aaron Eckhart goes through a transformation in this movie. I didn’t recognise him until I saw the credits at the end. As George, he isn’t integral. Near the beginning the movie looks like it’s just going to be another love story, in which he is pretty key, but as the movie moves on to more ‘serious stuff’ he is kind off left behind. You can also see Aaron in Nurse Betty (very good) Suspect Zero or Pay check.

Marg Helgenberger is probably best known for her role as Catherine Willows in CSI: Crime Scene Investigators. In the shows she displays some pretty good acting skills, and in Erin Brockovich she doesn’t disappoint either. She plays the often ill ridden Donna Jensen, who has been dooped by PG&E into thinking that the chromium is good for her health. She has to deal with the thought that her family could fall apart. She isn’t given all that much to do, but when she is given good emotional material to work with, she is brilliant.

Other cast members; David Brisbane, Dawn Didawick, Valente Rodriguez, George Rocky Sullivan and Julie marks.

As I have said many times, I have a great respect for Susannah Grant’s work. She has a knack for writing about important and interesting subject, while not making them to heavy. She perfectly balances humour with drama in this movie. What she writes is frank honest and unapologetic. She isn’t afraid to write about bad people doing good things or visor versa. I think that she is brilliant, and manages to make thought provoking, thinking films hit the main stream, which is no mean feat. I think the writing was one of the best parts of this movie, and without Susannah on board, I don’t think it would have been half as good. If you want to see other examples of her work see 28 Days (much, much, much recommended) The Disney flick Pocahontas (which was fairly good if not brilliant) and the brilliantly addictive Party Of Five (which produced two huge starlets Neve Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt)

Okay, now I have to admit, that I don’t know very much about Stephen Soderbergh, so I will have to base my opinion souly on this film. I think he does very well; he keeps the audience attention, when it could be quite boring, he draws good performances out of the actors and makes it visually exciting. Although, after I watched oceans Eleven I had to watch it again, to like it and the same goes for this. I think there is a lot to take in the first time around. Overall I think that this is a brilliant addition, to his gleaming back lot of movies. Which includes Welcome To Collinwood, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, Far From Heaven, Pleasantville, Out Of sight, Solaris and Full Frontal.

So what did I think off the movie all together? Well I thoroughly enjoyed watching it as an intelligent flick, which single handedly changed Julia’s image, and brought an interesting women’s life into the for front. Brilliantly directed and well handeled by the brilliant Susannah Grant. A really enjoyable movie, which may start off slow, but as the movie progresses, you will find yourself becoming more and more involved in the character’s, plot and come out of it with a little more appreciation of the strugglers people have to go through to make an impact, in a world, where stereotypes are very, very hard to break.

Special Features are few but are of good quality.

An interesting Making Of documentary is worth a look, as, it charts well the high and lows of filming and attempt to let the audience know a little more about the actual person.

Two interesting short interviews with the real Erin Brockovich and Ed Marsy which is interesting to see the difference between to on screen characters and the real people that inspired the movie.

And some deleted scenes that also can have director’s commentary thrown in. It is good to see that Stephen did have such a passion for this project as he puts a lot of effort into making the audience know exactly why he took the scenes out of the movie.

Now for the prices, and other information.

On Amazon DVD: £7.97 ASIN: B00004W4GT
On Amazon VHS: £5.99 ASIN: B00005955H

Global Video: DVD £6.99

The hut.com: DVD £7.00

A Little Bit More About The Real Erin Brockovich:

Erin married actor Eric Ellis in 1999. This is not the biker George, played by actor Aaron Eckhart in the film, although the biker was in fact based on a real person. Erin's 1999 marriage was her third trip to the alter. She was first married in 1982 to a restaurant manager named Shawn Brown, with whom she had two children, Matthew and Katie. Erin and Shawn divorced in 1987. After becoming a secretary at a Reno brokerage, it was there that she met her third husband, stockbroker Steven Brockovich. The two married in 1989 and had one child, her youngest daughter, Elizabeth. Erin and Steven divorced in 1990. Currently, Erin Brockovich-Ellis lives with her husband and children in Agoura Hills, California

Thank You As Always for reading and rating this review, it really does mean a lot. Thank you as always : ) Jay
 

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