Thursday Minute
No. 135 | July 22, 2010

Chick Flicks Not Just for Chicks

Our theme this week
Chick flicks—one guy’s take

Featured this week (theme introduction)
Monday         —   When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Tuesday         —   The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Wednesday    —   Terms of Endearment (1983)

Erin Brockovich (2000)

I decided the week needed Julia Roberts, the world’s preeminent female star over the past two decades.  Then the choice was, Which film?  Steel Magnolias (1988), with its cross-generational female ensemble?  Pretty Woman (1990), with the hooker role that made her a star?  One of her countless romantic comedies?  I don’t think so.  Let’s go with her Oscar-winning role as the single mom who takes on a big corporation and wins a legal settlement of more than $300 million.

Erin Brockovich is a populist hero for our times.  She’s street smart, a former beauty queen who can use her good looks to get what she needs, except to be taken seriously.  With no husband and three kids to feed, she finds work as a file clerk at her lawyer’s office.  She gets curious about a real estate case involving California utility PG&E, then starts digging.  She has no legal training but a sense of decency that won’t tolerate injustice, and eventually she uncovers evidence that the company contaminated the water supply of a small town, hid knowledge of the danger from residents, who suffered severe health problems.  It’s a story of an average citizen who takes on big money interests and wins—an improbable tale but true, based on the real-life experience of the woman who helped bring the corporation to justice in 1996.

Roberts has one of her juiciest roles and gives one of her best performances.  Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhart do good work in supporting roles.  In a more perfect world, Roberts would have as many parts in films like this as she does in romantic comedies.  Erin Brockovich has a serious side, but director Steven Soderbergh plays up the entertainment value too.  The film offers audiences a good time, and without much ado, something substantial too.

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Erin Brockovich (2000)
Steven Soderbergh, director
Susannah Grant, writer
Trailer
 

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Erin Brockovich (2000)
Julia Roberts

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Quote of Note
“For the first time in my life, I got people respecting me.  Please, don’t ask me to give it up.”
—Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts), Erin Brockovich (2000)

…58…59…60.