Erin
    Brokovich
actors
Julia Roberts
Albert Finney
Aaron Eckhart
Marg Helgenberger
Scarlett Pomers

director
Steven Soderbergh
location
Ventura and Oxnard, CA

outtake
With her performance
 as Erin Brockovich,
 Julia Roberts becomes
 the first woman to earn
 more than
$20 million for a film.
Also, watch
for the real Erin
Brockovich on the
screen. She appears briefly
as a waitress with a
nametag that
says "Julia."

take a small-time lawyer, a case with 100-to-one odds against the little guy, base it on a true story and add some drama. Heard this all before?

In A Civil Action, John Travolta played a personal-injury attorney battling a food company that's dumping toxic waste in a small town's water supply. Now if you replace Travolta with Julia Roberts, change the culprit to a public utility, and shift to a rural desert setting, you have the recipe for Erin Brockovich.

The film is based on the life of a twice-divorced mother of three who is getting by as a file clerk in a small law firm. Her world is turned upside down when she stumbles on evidence that the local power supplier is, you guessed it, poisoning the town's water.
Albert Finney (Washington Square) plays the boss who reluctantly allows his inexperienced clerk to investigate the case. Although she initially has a tough time getting the locals to listen, Brockovich's determination and passion eventually wins them over. When more than 600 plaintiffs agree to testify, Brockovich pursues what turns out to be the largest-ever settlement in a direct- action lawsuit - $333 million.

Regarded as the godfather of inde- pendent movies by many, Soderbergh started making short films at age 13 in his home town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. By the late '90s, he made it as an A-List director with the fast-paced, action-packed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Out of Sight starring George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez. Last year, he impressed critics with The Limey, a dark, psychological revenge thriller.

While Soderbergh is exchanging guns and mayhem for courtroom drama this time around, Erin Brockovich is also a bit of a departure for Roberts. After turning in many successful
performances with romantic comedies like Runaway Bride and Notting Hill, it seems Hollywood's best-paid actress wants to expand her dossier by playing more serious leads.
It's a good bet Erin Brockovich will be a winner at the box office, if only on the strength of Roberts' star power.

But the question remains to what degree audiences will be drawn by Soderbergh's directorial ingenuity.

Only time will tell which factor is more important.
                                                                                           - Zack Medicoff -