Passable story, grade A star

By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 17, 2000

Company pollutes water, residents get sick, case goes to court. We've been through this territory before, but never with a tour guide as charismatic as Erin Brockovich.

Julia Roberts' career takes a brassy turn for the better in Erin Brockovich, a true-life legal drama not much different from the usual courtroom theatrics, except for the title character and a game actor playing her.

Roberts is so determined to prove she is more than another pretty face that she focuses attention on other physical attributes with gaudy makeup and skimpy costuming. She hasn't appeared this foot-loose and fancy-free since Pretty Woman, the breakthrough role that left her trapped by the conventions of her own beauty.

The white-trash makeover is the most obvious difference between this and Roberts' post-celebrity roles. Erin isn't shy about using cleavage or miniskirts to get what she wants. It is a bracing departure from her usual sweetheart characters, no less endearing but with a flinty edge that viewers never realized Roberts had in reserve. It's a great role, and a good actor becomes better before our eyes.

Erin Brockovich was a single mother of three barely scraping together an existence before talking her way into a job with the same legal company that spoiled a bogus personal injury payday. She doesn't apply for the position as much as bully the firm's blustery boss (Albert Finney) into creating the position. Roberts and Finney share a crackling chemistry, never romantic but always simmering with smart-aleck one-upmanship.

Her job as a paper-pusher causes Erin to take particular interest in a series of illnesses in a region where drinking water is polluted by chromium from Pacific Gas & Electric. The company hired doctors to assure residents that their rash of cancers and birth defects was mere coincidence, and the residents believed. Erin becomes a runaway secretary, investigating the causes and effects. Her findings lead to the largest direct-action settlement in U.S. legal history.

The story outline bears close resemblance to A Civil Action, the John Travolta star vehicle from two years ago. Erin Brockovich is no less patterned as a celebrity showcase, yet the story isn't as stodgy and the legal-speak is more fun. We've passed through these halls of justice before, but never with such a saucy, impudent tour guide. These are grade C mechanisms with a grade A star.

Roberts sashays through the proceedings with obvious pleasure about a chance to redefine her screen image. Erin's strong maternal instincts preserve audience sympathy, while her crude savvy always remains one profane wisecrack or slutty maneuver away from losing it. A viewer may squirm at watching a woman resort to sexy mannerisms to get what she wants, but wait. Those men falling for Erin's ploys -- nearly every one, to some extent -- become the butts of a suggested joke.

Credit for this delicate balance goes to director Steven Soderbergh, who seems to have finally found his groove as a sprightly storyteller. This film doesn't have the ponderous feel of sex, lies and videotape or Kafka. Instead, it bounces along on the funky sensibilities Soderbergh displayed in Out of Sight.

Whenever a conventional moment arises -- a triumphant verdict, Erin's strapped home life, or her affair with a biker neighbor (Aaron Eckhart) -- the filmmaker traipses through expectations into some different vibe.

Nothing is particularly memorable about Erin Brockovich except its charismatic star and hindsight realization that we had a good time watching the same old thing in a new package. This time, that is enough.

Erin Brockovich

• Grade: B
• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger
• Screenplay: Susannah Grant
• Rating: R; profanity, sexual situations
• Running time: 135 min.