The year 2000 was an excellent one for director Steven Soderbergh. He directed not one, but two Best Picture nominees. Plus, Soderbergh took home the Oscar for Best Director for Traffic.
The other movie he made that year is even better than Traffic. Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts at the peak of her powers, follows a single mother of three children who discovers a massive coverup being perpetuated by a major energy company. Here are three reasons you should check it out while it’s on Peacock:
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Julia Roberts has never been better
People don’t often win Oscars for the movie they delivered their best performance in, but that was absolutely the case here. Roberts’ version of Erin Brockovich is a firecracker — a volatile woman who cares deeply about the real people affected by this cover-up and becomes determined to help them.
Crucially, the movie suggests that Brockovich’s kindness and her willingness to listen are central to the discoveries made in the case and to ultimately get these people the kind of settlement they deserve. Brockovich is highly competent, even if that competence is packaged a little unconventionally.
The movie is a delicate tonal balance
Because it’s based on a true story, Erin Brockovich always feels grounded in some sort of reality. At the same time, the movie is always both funny and at least some degree, tense, in part because Brockovich and the small law firm she works for are going up against a massive conglomerate.
The movie works because it’s perfectly paced and because it knows exactly how to make all its characters feel interesting and alive. That’s a result of great performances, but also thanks to Soderbergh’s complete mastery of the moviemaking process.
It’s cast with people who feel real
Julia Roberts is one of the most beautiful and radiant people alive. She’s perfectly cast as Brockovich, who often feels larger than life. Soderbergh then chose to fill out the rest of the cast with actors like Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhart, who are plausible as people you might meet in a rural part of California.
The movie’s verisimilitude is key to its overall effect, and the actors that inhabit the movie’s universe are key to that working. While there’s a lot of pain and turmoil in this movie’s plot, it doesn’t hurt to have a happy ending.
You can watch Erin Brockovich on Peacock.
