Movie Review of Erin Brockovich
Introduction
“It only takes a single act of kindness to turn the world around and put yourself at the center of it.” If there is one statement that could describe the plot of the film Erin Brockovich, the beginning statement captures everything. Erin Crockovich is a true story of a woman who fought the ill practice of Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). Released in 2000, the film that stars Julia Robert was a biographical sketch of how a single mother has been able to overcome the challenges presented her coming from an accident and an unsuccessful lawsuit. While the film was a success, there were quite a few setbacks in the storyline which failed to capture a perfect transition of how the lead character was able to come out of a tragic situation to something life altering moment. Having said this, this paper would like to present a critical review of the film as far as story, characters, direction music, editing, cinematography, acting, costumes, and special effects and identify the strengths and weaknesses of the film.
Synopsis of the Movie
Named after the lead character, Erin Brockovich graced the theater in 2000, seven years after the actual incident took place. Julia Roberts who took the role of the film’s lead character narrates a story of how Erin Brovkovich’s life was before the successful lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. This was the period when Robert’s character got into an accident and was sued for negligence. Unemployed and a single mother of three, Robert’s character lost the battle because of her eccentric behavior in the court despite the assurance of her lawyer played by Albert Finney. Determined to seek employment, Erin demanded that her lawyer give her a job after failing to win her case. Compelled out of pity, the lawyer gave her employment only to terminate her later in the belief that Erin has not been doing her job. Contrary to that, Erin actually stepped in a gold mine after her research led her to a conclusion that Pacific Gas and Electric Company had been violating the law and causing health problems among the residents of Hinkley for their illegal disposal of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium. This is contradicting PG&E’s press release that they are using the safe kind of chromium. After realizing this, Finney’s character rehire Erin back to pursue her research and eventually sue PG&E for class-action lawsuit which was successful because of all the information that Erin has been able to gather. At the end of the movie, Erin got a $2 million bonus from her boss. This movie has earned numerous awards and nominations for the film, the director and for Julia Roberts for playing the role of Erin Brockovich.
Whether your inquiries are write me an essay free or i wanna buy an essay, please address us and we will help!
Critical Review of the Film
Watching this movie takes your mind away. It grabs your attention because of the different characters with unique traits that have been used. There are different stylistics devices employed to make it a success. Eric Bockovich introduces different themes to us that have been developed in a critical and professional way. One of which is women empowerment in the society. Women have been used to trigger the change and be on the forefront to champion the same in the community. The critical point of the story is how a woman who was at the lowest point of her life manages to turn things around because she stopped and think that she couldn’t let society manipulate who she is. With the director’s impeccable skills in directing the film, this theme somehow came across amidst a few setbacks in the storyline.
Proper filming, camera angle, editing and sound have been used to develop the various themes in the film in addition the director plays an enormous role to clearly display the contents of the themes and in a clear easy to understand way. In every pivotal scene, the musical underscore helped catapult the film to become more convincing and powerful, delivering from the point of view of emotional appeal. The camera angling was able to capture Julia Roberts’ various facial expressions even making it momentarily still for just a few second to leave a mark in the memory of its audience.
The director and use of the framing can lower the quality of the film. In this film, the director has proved to be good in framing. He has mostly used close shots especially in the office. This is in order to achieve character's emotions and facial expressions. This kind of shots works best with intelligent and real actors. To make the framing realistic the proper camera angle also has been used. The most evident was the eye level shot. This is commonly used because of the need to achieve reality, and it's the way we see people every day. Dolly shot could have been evident in the scene of the accident. It captures the images in the best way and also in a wider view. The stranger has employed cuts to move and bring transitions between different scenes. Depending on the film maker, this can be smooth or jarring. For this case jarring was used because of communication and the need to combine ideas. The characters appear so bright, beautiful and handsome this was brought about by lighting and proper editing.
Based on my opinion, the director of the film Steven Soderbergh is noted to direct the list of other movies before this. He is a man of originality and great erudition. He does not use flashbacks that can be criticized as out of sight, blatant jump cuts that would make the film look much a small budget. He has tried to keep the camera fixed as most of the scenes the movie does not share or fail to capture the actors in the desired way. The make ups and selection of the players was also very recommendable. The best part is watching the women who are in the office and how they all are dressed. This attracts the viewers and gives a positive recession for the movie.
During the acting, appropriate vocal techniques have been used. To communicate effectively and display the right emotions, rising, and falling intonation is also induced. In addition, Proper articulation of the words, confidence and physical movements have been noted in the different scenes. During the shoot, it can be deduced that the director used deep focus as it captures the people around and also those far behind the scene to bring out a particular message. The pan has also used a particular point of view and also a pullback shot. Graphics has been used during editing to bring out bright and catchy pictures. All this qualities immensely contributed to an admirable movie.
The strength of the film basically starts with the good storyline. The writer has been able to capture the best parts of Erin Brockovich’s life as to how her character has been able to transition from a tragic situation to overcoming the obstacles that were presented her way. The theme of women empowerment was perfectly capture in the story. The director’s ability to capture the emotions of the characters was spectacular. As mentioned earlier, there were a lot of close up shots that were used in the film and this shots were all accurately used to highlight the most significant reactions of the characters in the film.
The theme of empowerment was also perfectly captured because of how the sound, editing and framing was done. The proper use of the camera, framing sound and editing. The writer was also able to deliver powerful lines throughout the film. Good and appropriate conversation is essential in everyday's life. It's only through communication that people will know what you are going through. Communication helps people share ideas and build the society as a whole. It was only after the scene of the accident that through communication Juliet hired a lawyer (Agyeman). She did not know that the agent was to be her savior at the end of it all. Later after Juliet lost the case she decides to hold a conversation with his lawyer who recently does not pick calls. This persuades her to walk to his office and confront him in person. After this, she was able to secure a chance to work in the company.
Nevertheless, there were some off shots that could have been improved. For example the shot in the courtroom was too rowdy. This is the reason why it has failed to truly capture that the failure of the attorney to win Erin’s case was largely because of Erin herself. There was very little emphasis placed on how Julia Robert’s character made a scene in the movie made it significantly hard for the judge not to hold her in contempt. In addition, there was very little emphasis placed on the struggles of Erin Brockovich as a single mother that was brought forward to the film (Moberg). Instead, too much focus was placed on the scene where Erin Brockovich was busy with her research about the ill practices of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Given that this part was the highlight of the story, I think the part where Erin struggles but manages to overcome each struggle would have shown here strong character as a woman, as a mother and as an individual. The side that the film tried to capture as far as Erin Brockovich’s life was concerned was only on the case that she helped won. If the film was truly about one’s victory over the tribulations presented her way, then they should have emphasized her personal life and not just focus on one aspect. It was almost not about the celebration of Erin Brockovich’s life and her victories over the adversities that she had encountered throughout her life, then it there should have been a perfect balance of all her struggles and her accomplishments. It only highlighted one part of her life and that had very little to do with her personal life but more on her life outside her family, her children and herself. It was a very one sided interpretation. It was good to capture her accomplishments but that almost meant very little because it was not able to showcase that before there was the accomplishment, Erin was first and foremost coming from the biggest upsets of her life.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the movie was about the celebration of the life of a person. It was a story of success. It was a story of how the unemployed single mother, Erin Brockovich was able to successfully overcome her biggest challenges. It was able to show that society cannot discredit people because of how they look, how they speak, how they behave. It is not about one’s educational accomplishments that makes them succeed in life. However, it is about how they would triumph and overcome the biggest upsets in their life and find ways to turn it around.
If you ask if the movie is worth seeing, amidst the shortness in the storyline it is still worth the watch. The film has been developed with educative themes to help the society. They are helpful and make people learn to relate and communicate with each other. Also supports that every person has a chance in the society to make a decision that will be helpful to their lives. The character also portrays traits to borrow from for a better life and also interest for the society. Everyone should watch the film especially those who are going through the biggest hurdles in their life. The movie is a breath of fresh air. It gives people the hope that things will get better no matter how seemingly hopeless they are right now.
Work cited
Moberg, Mark. "Erin Brockovich Doesn't Live Here: Environmental Politics and Responsible Care in Mobile County, Alabama." Human organization 61.4 (2002): 377-389.
Agyeman, Julian. Sustainable communities and the challenge of environmental justice. New York: New York University Press, 2005.
