There are so many things to appreciate about this film it's difficult to know where to look / on what to focus:
Susannah Grant's screenplay. She has a great way of coming out of a scene fast, writes memorable monologues (for Roberts, but Finney too). Lots of things: Erin's having a bad day. 1. She doesn't get a job at a doctor's. 2. She gets a parking ticket. 3. She breaks a nail getting into the car. 4. She is hit by a car. (Almost Famous won the Oscar - can't really complain about that.)
Ed Lachman's cinematography. Is it colour coded? There's a definite blue / orange thing - day to night.
Thomas Newman's music. It's not the sort of music you remember especially, or buy the soundtrack, but it just beautifully moves things along, like a BMW engine.
Annie Coates' editing. Does she decide to leave the phone call in the car just on Julia or maybe Aaron Eckhardt's side of the conversation wasn't filmed? (P.S. No I'm sure it was filmed because we see the beginning of it.) Note how she does those little montages - Erin looking for a job, ending on the pen being wagged... And the way she ends poignant scenes on a dissolve... Like this...
The acting's quite good too.
As to the real Erin Brockovich, she is a legal consultant, has her own business and has presented TV shows and written an autobiography. She has been involved in several other pollution cases, some of which were also successful.
It's quite long - maybe there's one scene too many of Erin collecting signatures, but it has a massive pay-off, focusing on one particular claimant (played by Marg Helgenberger), and one last exchange between employer and employee that for once leaves Erin speechless.
Her (first) car is a Buick Regal 1990.
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