Erin Brockovich

ERIN BROCKOVICH

Based on a True Story

RATING: R

TIME: 130 minutes

STARRING: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger, Peter Coyote, & Conchata Ferrell

DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh

PRODUCERS: Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg & Stacey Sher

GENRE: Drama

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Older teenagers & adults

SUMMARY: In Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts plays a twice-divorced single mother. When Erin shames her lawyer into giving her a job, she finds herself leading the charge against a power company in California whose pollution seriously damaged the health of nearly an entire desert town. Erin convinces her lawyer to allow her to investigate the case. He welcomes the chance to get the brash young woman out of his hair. Surprisingly, however, she discovers the cover-up involving contaminated water and helps put together a solid lawsuit.

Reportedly, the real Erin Brockovich not only uses lots of strong foul language, like in this movie, and also enjoys wearing low-cut clothes and very short dresses. Much of the humor in the movie involves how Erin uses her body and her speech to get people to do things for her and the case, especially the men she encounters. Roberts plays these qualities to the hilt, yet expresses genuine concern for the plight of the townspeople. The director and the rest of the cast and crew, especially Albert Finney as the lawyer, add greatly to the proceedings. These and other qualities somewhat mitigate the movie's abundance of objectionable content.

CONTENT: Humanist worldview with feminist and moral elements; 84 obscenities and 18 profanities; very brief mild violence including speeding car slams into rear of other car; implied fornication; upper male nudity, woman in underwear in one bedroom scene and woman wears revealing clothes throughout most of movie; alcohol use; smoking; and, business corruption and pollution.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Mar 24, 2000
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