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Erin Brockovich
Universal Pictures

Erin Brockovich reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 73 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.5 out of 10
based on 35 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 14 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA 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)


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Susannah Grant  
DIRECTED BY: Steven Soderbergh  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: August 15, 2000 
Video: August 15, 2000 
Theatrical: March 17, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 130 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Julia Roberts received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and a British Academy Award as Best Actress. The film was nominated for four additional 2001 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Finney), and Best Original Screenplay.

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

Vote Now!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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