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Erin Brockovich

EMAILPRINTUniversal Pictures

Erin Brockovich reviews
73
7.5 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 14 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Susannah Grant

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh

Release Date:
Theatrical: March 17, 2000
DVD: August 15, 2000

Running Time: 130 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: R for language

Starring Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, and Marg Helgenberger

An unconventional drama based on true events, starring Julia Roberts as the twice-divorced mother of three young children who sees an injustice, takes on the bad guy and wins. (Universal Pictures)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Takes the raw truth and makes it jubilantly, terrifically entertaining.

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Roberts and Erin Brockovich have Oscar contender written all over them.

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100

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

All the up-from-under satisfaction of an underdog getting over, with the added oomph of the truth.

90

TNT RoughCut Morgan Fouch

Roberts shines.

90

Village Voice Amy Taubin

This is the Julia Roberts performance her fans have been waiting for.

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90

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Irresistible, hugely satisfying feminist fairy tale.

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90

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Surely one of the canniest and most accurate films about American working-class life ever.

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88

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

A first-rate office comedy of prickly exchanges.

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88

Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday

The kind of movie that gives mainstream Hollywood star vehicles a good name.

88

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The kind of stand-up-and-cheer movie Hollywood is supposed to have forgotten how to make.

83

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Roberts, in her most forceful dramatic performance, allows us to take in every moment through fresh, impassioned eyes.

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83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

She's foul-mouthed, trashy, a legal pit bull ... and she's wonderful.

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80

Newsweek David Ansen

Comic electricity.

80

Variety Todd McCarthy

Snappy and unusually funny under fundamentally serious circumstances, without being contrived or sitcomy.

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80

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A sexy, hugely enjoyable romp, hedged with lyrical grace notes and intimate detail.

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80

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Outrageously, even shamelessly, entertaining.

80

Slate David Edelstein

Roberts has her most galvanic role, and she's sensationally appealing.

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78

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The most memorable David vs. Goliath courtroom showdown in recent memory.

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75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Roberts carries the film in the best sense, by taking us on a human journey of genuine discovery and growth.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The ultimate Julia Roberts movie.

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75

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

Loose and funny with verve.

75

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Roberts inhabits the character with a gravity and poignancy that she had never even hinted at before.

75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The acting is amiable and the story is crisply told.

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70

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It is a rabble-rousing cheerfest, based on a true story.

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70

Film.com Gemma Files

Retains enough of Soderbergh's usual indie sensibility to make some sly but contentious points.

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60

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

This is a Julia Roberts Movie about only one thing: being a Julia Roberts Movie.

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60

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The feel-good movie of the year.

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60

Film.com Robert Horton

Julia Roberts owns this sweet-natured film.

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60

Film.com John Hartl

Soderbergh demands a lot from his star here, and she delivers.

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50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

A screenplay with the depth and insight of a cable-TV docudrama.

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50

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

It's not that this is lousy entertainment, it's just that it's a Serious Topic given unnecessary Celebrity Sheen.

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50

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

All of the filmmaker's fine work and good intentions cannot make this repetitive and finally tiresome saga fly.

50

TV Guide Steve Simels

Entertaining -- if predictable.

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50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Standard-issue liberal feel-good fodder.

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20

Time Richard Corliss

Erin Brockovich is slick, grating and false. We bet it makes a bundle.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 14 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jonathan F. gave it a10:
great performance. great story. very entertaining.

Christian G. gave it a9:
Julia Roberts deserved the Oscar for this movie (anyway it has been given to worst actresses). Her performance is not a deep one, but she knows how to pull off her lack of talent very well, and actually make this movie an entertaining one. All the production values are great, as so it is the supporting cast (Albert finney above all). Steven Soderbergh has a great talent for making important issues entertaining and not heavy handed. I have seen it like 7 times now, and still doesn't get old.

Ricky C. gave it a 10:
This was the Best Movie of the Year 2000!

Pat C. gave it a 6:
Miss Goody-Two-Shoes goes enviro, morphs into Wonder Woman, saves planet, then comes off as plain old Mom less the usual cash flow problems. It's a well put together film, and maybe there is some truth to its characterization of the designated soul-less polluter, but the story itself's got a bad smell around the edges. I'm going with Yoon on this one.

Yoon Min C. gave it a 6:
Social consciousness movie as playing the slotmachine. A bunch of people get sick from corporate pollution and Ms Brockovich in the form of Julia Roberts turns them into millionaires. Only in America! Pouty-lipped, cleavage heaving Julia Roberts, who has the annoying habit of moistening her lips with her lizard lips, panders to both feminists and bimbos. The movie has some edgy early 70s American cinematic verve but it's no All the President's Men or even Serpico. It's just woman's movie as empowerment fantasy and how-to-become-a-millionaire-by-becoming-a-victim. Please, some corporation, poison me; and please God, sense some smart scantily clad broad my way.

Gilbert gave it an 8:
I wish people would stop using the word "Liberal" as an insult. It's like calling Tony Blair "President". He's Prime Minister, it's the same damn thing! Anyway anyway anyway. Politics aside, this is a pretty good biopic, with Soderbergh's trademark stop-start direction used to great effect, and great performances from Roberts and Albert "Tom" Finney. Shame about the title though. I hate films named after their central character.

Derek L. gave it a 1:
Little David brings down big Goliath. Sorry, been there seen that. Emotionally dishonest Hollywood fluff (nothing is this one-sided, not even a Superbowl), just what Hollywood is great at. Doesn't mean I have to like it though.

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