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Movie Review: Erin Brockovich (Soderbergh)

Erin Brockovich was based on a true story, which puts it in that dangerous tv-movie-of-the-week category. But, it turnsout, if you put Julia Roberts in it and get Steven Soderbergh to direct it, you can get a decent movie out of it. It definitely leads you along emotionally, but it is an easy ride with a big company doing evil and lots of hard-working people as victims. It managed to avoid too many speeches ("I know the difference between right and wrong"), although the point was pretty obvious throughout. I wonder if the focus on Erin's money trouble at the beginning allowed the movie to be too money focused, although they had the speech at the end to say that wasn't really the point, it would have been nice if they hadn't had to tell us that. Show more of the reaction of the victims. Although, really, we never got to know the victims throughout the film. I guess it was a good movie that effectively made its point, which is nice since it was a true story, although it didn't quite reach the level where it made me think more deeply about the issues involved. Which is a lot to ask, I guess, but wasn't this movie all about exceeding what people think you are capable of?