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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Erin Brockovich
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bubble Eros Full Frontal Ocean's Eleven Ocean's Twelve Out of Sight Schizopolis sex, lies, and videotape Solaris The Girlfriend Experience The Good German The Limey Traffic
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
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...
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Takes the raw truth and makes it jubilantly, terrifically entertaining.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Roberts and Erin Brockovich have Oscar contender written all over them.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber
All the up-from-under satisfaction of an underdog getting over, with the added oomph of the truth.
TNT RoughCut Morgan Fouch
Roberts shines.
Village Voice Amy Taubin
This is the Julia Roberts performance her fans have been waiting for.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Irresistible, hugely satisfying feminist fairy tale.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
Surely one of the canniest and most accurate films about American working-class life ever.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
The kind of movie that gives mainstream Hollywood star vehicles a good name.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The kind of stand-up-and-cheer movie Hollywood is supposed to have forgotten how to make.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Roberts, in her most forceful dramatic performance, allows us to take in every moment through fresh, impassioned eyes.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
She's foul-mouthed, trashy, a legal pit bull ... and she's wonderful.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
Comic electricity.
Variety Todd McCarthy
Snappy and unusually funny under fundamentally serious circumstances, without being contrived or sitcomy.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
A sexy, hugely enjoyable romp, hedged with lyrical grace notes and intimate detail.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Outrageously, even shamelessly, entertaining.
Slate David Edelstein
Roberts has her most galvanic role, and she's sensationally appealing.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The most memorable David vs. Goliath courtroom showdown in recent memory.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Loose and funny with verve.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Roberts inhabits the character with a gravity and poignancy that she had never even hinted at before.
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The acting is amiable and the story is crisply told.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
It is a rabble-rousing cheerfest, based on a true story.
Read Full Review >Film.com Gemma Files
Retains enough of Soderbergh's usual indie sensibility to make some sly but contentious points.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky
This is a Julia Roberts Movie about only one thing: being a Julia Roberts Movie.
Read Full Review >Film.com John Hartl
Soderbergh demands a lot from his star here, and she delivers.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A screenplay with the depth and insight of a cable-TV docudrama.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
All of the filmmaker's fine work and good intentions cannot make this repetitive and finally tiresome saga fly.
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.
