“Do they teach beauty queens to apologize? Because you suck at it!”
I used to get angry at my mom when she goes home late from work because her boss wasn’t sympathetic enough to realize she still has a family to go home to, until I watched the Oscar-winning tour de force Erin Brockovich (2000, directed by Steven Sodergbergh). My mom had always wanted me to watch it, maybe partly because of the current issue.
Being charismatic enough may truly be a significant business asset. But this didn’t seem to work out well with Erin (Academy Award winner Julia Roberts) at first, as she tried to find a decent job even without decent educational attainments just so she could pay her bills and feed her three young kids.
Bad luck followed when she got hit by a car and bombarded Ed Masry’s (Albert Finney) office to hire him as her lawyer. With a lost case, a rumbling stomach and $74 in the bank, Erin went home to find a job again and decided to work at Masry’s office.
Strong-willed and desperate and charismatic enough (after she also cussed so hard it shook the law firm to its foundations), she got the job. But the way she dressed at work made her quite isolated from the rest of the professional group.
At a certain paperwork she was asked to arrange the documents for Masry’s pro bono case, then marking the long treacherous political road she never expected to set foot on.
Curious why some medical documents went with the resident case, Erin asked permission to investigate further and visited the complainant in Hinkley. She discovered the PG&E Company wanting to buy their property justified they paid for the residents’ monthly check-up, which incidentally became very necessary as they developed severe illnesses and cancer. But the family complained the company’s price offer for their house was not worth it.
One week of the case investigation ironically fired Erin with Masry thinking she was toying with the job. But then after a chemist researcher commented on Erin’s findings that the water from Hinkley provided by the PG&E contained high levels of poisonous chemicals, Masry was forced to put Erin back to work to further investigate.
Leaving her three kids to her lover George (Aaron Eckhart), Erin worked double time as the case got bigger and bigger, with the PG&E known to be a billion-dollar company. They gathered evidences and plaintiffs from Hinkley and it required much physical work, with Erin always coming home late.
Her liaison work eating much of her time, Erin noticed her children avoiding her, especially after George left. Until one day her son read one of the plaintiff documents she took home and finally understood the nature of her mom’s noble work.
Erin’s street-smart charisma, and her personal efforts “to be good at her job” led the case to be the largest medical settlement lawsuit in history (with 611 plaintiffs sharing $333M).
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| "I am often referred to as the environmentalist with cleavage." |
“For the first time in my life I got people respecting me.” I truly admire Erin Brockovich for her amazing dedication to help other people and to pay it forward.
Visit her site at www.erinbrockovich.com
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