Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich (2000) 

Directed by: Steven Soderberg
Written by: Susannah Grant
Julia Roberts won the Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe for Best Actress.
Streaming on Netflix. 

It's the story of an underdog - Erin Brockovich - who has no education in the law, and despite of that, was instrumental in building a case against a Gas and Energy company. Initially, she is taken very lightly by her colleagues because of the way she dresses and looks. They feel like she doesn't belong there. And she's even fired, until they realize that what she's been doing was actually a lot of significant work. Julia Roberts did a really good job, because the character is very nuanced and a lot of it comes through the performance and the body language. The way she talks, the way she walks, and it's like she is a misfit and she isn't understood as a person by the people around. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo had a similar protagonist. I really liked how her son has a character arc, from being nagging to being empathetic. 

The film has a nice tone to it, it's a workplace drama, but it's also a character study. The way the conversations are shot, the pacing and the rhythm of the scenes, it reminded me of Spotlight where the characters are given their space to take a breath. The framing is very interestingly done. I remember a lot of 1-shots when the characters talk. This kind of framing gives more power to each of the characters when they speak, because this film doesn't deal as much with interpersonal relationships. It's about Erin, finding herself some respect and identity. Only when she's more human, vulnerable, like when she's talking to the plaintiffs, or when she's with family, we see suggestion shots to see that she exists with others. But when she's at work kicking ass, we see 1-shots. In the scene where she tells the lawyer that she knows all the contacts of the plaintiffs by heart, it's a close up, 1-shot. This kind of framing subconsciously adds to our viewing of the film.