Erin Brockovich (film) — BrandWiki

Erin Brockovich (film)

Overview

Erin Brockovich

director	Steven Soderbergh
producer	Danny DeVito Michael Shamberg Stacey Sher
writer	Susannah Grant
starring	Julia Roberts Albert Finney Aaron Eckhart
music	Thomas Newman
cinematography	Ed Lachman
editing	Anne V. Coates
studio	Universal Pictures Columbia Pictures Jersey Films
distributor	Universal Pictures (United States and Canada)‡R1R‡ Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (International)‡R1R‡
runtime	130 minutes
country	United States
language	English
budget	$52 million
gross	$256.3 million

Erin Brockovich is a 2000 American biographical legal drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Susannah Grant.[3] The film is a dramatization of the true story of Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts, who initiated a legal case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company over its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident. Erin Brockovich premiered in Los Angeles on March 14, 2000, and was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Pictures on March 17, 2000, and internationally by Columbia Pictures. It emerged as a critical and commercial success, grossing $256.3 million worldwide.

The film received five nominations at the 73rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor (Albert Finney). Roberts won Best Actress at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, and the SAG Awards. Additionally, the film won the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director (for Soderbergh, also for

Plot

In 1993, Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three living in Los Angeles, California. After being injured in a car crash with a doctor, she files a lawsuit. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win, but Erin's explosive courtroom behavior under cross-examination loses her the case, and Ed cannot return her phone calls afterwards. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office, apparently working. She says he told her things would work out, but they did not, and that she needed a job. Sympathizing with Erin, Ed gets her a paid job at the office.

Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen, a Hinkley resident. Erin is surprised to see medical records in the file and visits Donna, who explains that she had kept all her PG&E correspondence together. Donna appreciates PG&E's help: she has had several tumors, and her husband has Hodgkin's lymphoma, but PG&E has always supplied a doctor at their own expense. Erin asks why they would do that, and Donna replies, "Because of the chromium". Erin begins digging into the case and finds evidence that the groundwater in Hinkley is seriously contaminated with carcinogenic hexavalent chromium, but PG&E has been telling Hinkley residents that they use a safer form of chromium. After several days away from the office doing this research, she is fired by Ed until he realizes she has been working the entire time and sees what she has found, and rehires her.

Erin continues her research and, over time, visits many of the community's residents and wins their trust. She finds many cases of tumors and other medical problems in Hinkley. PG&E's doctors have treated everyone and think the cluster of cases is just a coincidence, unrelated to the "safe" chromium. The Jensens' claim for compensation grows into a major lawsuit, but the direct evidence only relates to PG&E's Hinkley plant, not to corporate management.

Knowing that PG&E could slow any settlement for years through delays and appeals, Ed takes the opportunity to arrange for disposition by binding arbitration, but a large majority of the plaintiffs must agree to this. Erin returns to Hinkley and persuades all 634 plaintiffs to go along. While she is there, a man named Charles Embry approaches her to say that he and his cousin were PG&E employees, but his cousin recently died from the poison. The man says he was tasked with destroying documents at PG&E, but "as it turns out," he "wasn't a very good employee".

Embry gives Erin the documents, which include a 1966 memo proving corporate headquarters knew the water was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, did nothing about it, and advised the Hinkley operation to keep this secret. The judge orders PG&E to pay a $333 million settlement to be distributed among the plaintiffs.

In the aftermath, Ed hands Erin her bonus payment for the case but warns her he has changed the amount. She explodes into a complaint that she deserves more respect, but is astonished and left speechless to find that he has increased it to $2 million.

Production

Development and writing

The idea for the film came to be when executive producer Carla Santos Shamberg happened to learn about Erin Brockovich's story due to sharing a chiropractor with her.[4] Santos Shamberg invited Brockovich over to her house to share her story. Of their meeting, Santos Shamberg recalled: "I couldn't believe it. It seemed incredible that this twice-divorced woman with three young children, who had no money, no resources, and no formal education, had single-handedly put this case together. I thought she seemed like the perfect role model for the new millennium."

Brockovich sold the film rights to her story in 1997 and the film began development at Jersey Films.[4] Producers courted Callie Khouri[5] and Paul Attanasio to write the script, but after they passed, screenwriter Susannah Grant was hired. Grant, who was looking to do a "story about a kick-ass broad", secured a meeting with Brockovich in person.[4] Grant spent a year following Brockovich and her kids around while writing the screenplay.[6] To ensure the script's accuracy, Grant said she spent weeks going over the trial transcripts, Hinkley water board records, and notes made by Brockovich during the investigation.[4]

Grant and the producers were in agreement that they did not want to do a traditional courtroom drama where institutional corruption would be the heart of the story. Said Grant of the script: "I came to believe that the spine of the story would be stronger if it was an emotional spine rather than an informational spine. So I really structured it [around] Erin and Ed's relationship. Structurally, it's a love story. It's not a romantic love, obviously, but it is an interpersonal love story. That was going to give me the most freedom. There's a scene where she's explaining the degree of malfeasance on PG&E's part, and all of that is in there, but what she's really doing in that scene is proving to Ed her worth and that he should be stepping up and meeting her where she is."[5]

After three big-name directors passed on helming the film, Jersey Films approached Steven Soderbergh, who already had a relationship with the production company due to his 1998 film Out of Sight.[4] Soderbergh was selected to direct because he was known for being a good director of women. "I knew he would treat this character with a lot of respect and not make her silly. He did it with Jennifer Lopez [in Out of Sight] and Andie MacDowell [in Sex, Lies, and Videotape]," said Santos Shamberg.[4] Said Soderbergh: "It's rare to find human-sized heroes, and I was just captivated by [Erin] and her relationship with Ed and the fact that it was a story about people who made certain sacrifices and stood on certain principles without being a screed."[4] Soderbergh was also drawn to the project for the opportunity to direct a film in which the female protagonist is in every scene in the film, something he had never done before.

Santos Shamberg pictured Julia Roberts in the lead role from the outset, but producers thought her casting would be a long shot. However, the script was slipped to Roberts' agent and Roberts expressed enthusiasm in taking on the lead role and working with Soderbergh.[4] In doing the film, Roberts became the first actress at that time to be paid $20 million.[7]

Filming

The film was shot in 1999 over eleven weeks, of which five took place in Ventura, California.[8] Richard LaGravenese did an uncredited script polish.[5][9]

Brockovich herself appears in the film as a waitress, while Edward Masry appears as a diner patron sitting behind her.[4] A judge who delivered a key ruling in the PG&E case was played by the actual judge.[4]

The scene where a PG&E attorney is afraid to drink from a glass of water after Brockovich and Masry inform her that it came from Hinkley wells was altered for dramatic effect, but did actually take place during a trial.[4]

Reception

Box office

Erin Brockovich was released in 2,848 theaters on March 17, 2000, and grossed $28.1 million on its opening weekend. It had the second-highest March opening weekend upon release, after Liar Liar. This was also the second-highest opening weekend for a Julia Roberts film, behind Runaway Bride.[12] The film reached the number one spot during its first weekend, beating Mission to Mars and Final Destination.[13] It made $18.5 million while declining by 34% for its second weekend while outgrossing Romeo Must Die, Here on Earth and Whatever It Takes.[14][15] Then, Erin Brockovich collected $13.8 million in its third weekend, defeating The Road to El Dorado, The Skulls and High Fidelity.[16] Overall, it spent a total of three weeks as the number one film until it was dethroned by Rules of Engagement.[17] The film went on to make $125.6 million in North America, making it the tenth highest-grossing film domestically for the year 2000.[18] It grossed $130.7 million internationally for a worldwide total of $256.3 million.[19]

Critical response

On review website Rotten Tomatoes, Erin Brockovich holds an approval rating of 87% based on 192 reviews. The critics consensus reads, "Taking full advantage of Julia Roberts's considerable talent and appeal, Erin Brockovich overcomes a few character and plot issues to deliver a smart, thoughtful, and funny legal drama."[20] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted score of 73 out of 100 based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[21] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[22]

In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "We get the best of independent cinema and the best of mainstream cinema all in one package. Erin Brockovich, like Wonder Boys right before it, makes the year 2000 seem increasingly promising for movies".[23] Newsweek's David Ansen

Accolades

Julia Roberts became the first actress to win an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Movie Award, Golden Globe Award, National Board of Review Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for a single performance.[35]

Steven Soderbergh received dual nominations for Best Director that year for both Erin Brockovich and Traffic, winning the award for the latter. In 2021, members of Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) voted the film's screenplay 78th in WGA's 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (so far).[36][37]

American Film Institute recognition:

AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:

Furthermore, he wrote, "Roberts has wasted her effervescence on many paltry projects, but she hits the jackpot this time. Erin, single mother of three, a former Miss Wichita who improbably rallies a community to take on a multi-billion-dollar corporation, is the richest role of her career, simultaneously showing off her comic, dramatic and romantic chops".[24] Rolling Stones Peter Travers 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".[25] Robert Philpot of Fort Worth Star-Telegram gave it a three-and-a-half out of four rating, describing it as "a movie that uses a wicked sense of humor to examine serious themes. It's the kind of David-vs.-Goliath story told in The Insider and A Civil Action, but it drops the self-importance of those movies and replaces it with a refreshingly feisty attitude".[26] 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".[27] Sight & Sounds Andrew O'Hehir wrote, "Perhaps the best thing about this relaxed and supremely engaging film (for my money the best work either the director or his star has ever done) is that even its near-fairytale resolution doesn't offer a magical transformation".[28] Donald Munro of Fresno Bee gave it a "B+" rating and said, "We've indulged in the bash-the-big-bad-corporation genre before with such upstanding films as Silkwood, Norma Rae and A Civil Action -- but never have we had such rollicking fun doing it".[29] In her review for The Village Voice, Amy Taubin wrote, "What's pretty original about the picture is that it focuses an investigative drama based on a true story around a comic performance".[30]