The Nutshell: A feisty young woman, Erin Brockovich (Julia Roberts), arrives at the law offices of Ed Masry (Albert Finney) through the forces of Fate. A twice divorced mother of three with no employable skills, she badgers, cajoles and pleads with Masry to give her a job. He reluctantly hires her as a file clerk. After finding medical records in real estate files, she becomes a de facto investigator to uncover a large utility company's cover-up concerning the contamination of a small town's water supply. As the stakes get higher, the uneducated and untrained Erin must use her considerable wits and genuine empathy to the affected townsfolk to stay not only ahead, but in the game.
As is apparent from the description, ERIN BROCKOVICH is film treading on the ground of earlier films. NORMA RAE has given us the gutsy, blue collar woman fighting the big corporation and THE VERDICT has shown us out-of-their-league lawyers having to face very daunting legal challenges. With the Harley-Davidson riding next door neighbor who volunteers (!) to watch her three kids, there's even a shade of MASK's sweet bikers thrown in to boot. When a film has so much past cinema history to compete in the audiences memory against, it has two choices: the minefield or paint-by-numbers. A writer and director could try to approach the story and film in a new way. They can avoid all the clichés and expectations, and go for something wholly original. But like in a minefield, one misstep and the film implodes from the twin anticipations from both the general audience and the cineastes lead to expect something more.
Or, they can capitulate to the idea that there are few new options in presenting real-life stories and make sure they keep the those audience pleasing moment coming at a steady rate. Steven Soderbergh and writer Susannah Grant go the later, and hence, paint-by-numbers route. This is the Soderbergh who gave us OUT OF SIGHT more than the one responsible for THE LIMEY. There is nothing wholly original here in either the film's story line or how it's presented. In fact, BROCKOVICH is such a studio star vehicle he doesn't employ the non-linear editing of those last two films that was becoming his forte.
Considering his last films and that his announced future projects are a remake of the piffle OCEAN'S 11 and a film version of the BBC TV show "Traffic" (about a drug enforcement chief finding out his daughter is a drug mule), Soderbergh seems to be following a one for the studio/one for himself approach to filmmaking. Too bad BROCKOVICH seems to be the studio pic he is doing before starting TRAFFIC. Allowed to work with a more realistic version of Erin (for comparison, pay close attention to the waitress early-on: it's the real Erin Brockovich doing a cameo) and not having to deal with the considerations that go hand in hand with working with someone of Robert's stature it would have been interesting see how different (and very possibly better) this could have been.
This is a showy part and Roberts sinks her teeth into it. Roberts here will remind those who remember it of her breakthrough part in MYSTIC PIZZA - a film that had the bad luck of being a movie aimed at women before "chick flicks" became trendy recently. Definitely worth a rental. She is caustic, forceful and unpretentious. The only problem is Roberts brings so much baggage with her that she never makes the character seem unique. The part suffers from us never being surprised by a larger-than-life character because, well, it's Julia Roberts. It's a wonder why New Jersey Films didn't opt to try this as a low budget film showcasing an actress not as well known. Janet McTeer, who did a similar no-collar turn in TUMBLEWEEDS that prompted several critics to call hers THE performance of 1999, actually looks like the real Erin.
Beginning what will hopefully be the start of a interesting late middle-aged phase of his career, Finney consistently infuses his character with the quirks and a real human tics that are just as consistently missing from Roberts performance. Those who were unlucky enough to catch the pointless and boring SIMPATICO (was there ever a more egregious waste of a good title?) will be excused from thinking his turn as the race horse voucher in that turgid film was a warm-up for Masry. As a man who has worked hard and been careful to arrive where he is in life, he had a helluva lot more to lose than Brockovich who is acting out of necessity. Instead of sounding shrill and selfish, Finney manages a nice balancing act between grounding him enough to be solid and letting him let Erin befuddle him. Its a shame that if anyone remembers the film next winter when the next awards season starts, it will be for the wrong performance.
Universal left nothing to chance marketing BROCKOVICH, unfortunately for regular movie attendees. Every great zinger and most of the "You tell'em, girl!" moments are squandered in the trailers. For those who plunk down their $8.50 to discover what made Erin and her story worth telling find that the awfully nice folk in the Universal marketing department have made sure there is nothing new to discover. It's not hard to like BROCKOVICH. It moves deftly between the expanding professional life of its title character and the repercussions it is having on her home life. It makes a lot of smart choices in what to play up and what events can be skimmed over. As long as its treated as the feel good, unchallenging mainstream studio star vehicle it was fashioned to be, liking the film will come easy. Just don't expect anything deeper. As either a safe-bet outing at the multiplex or a rental half a year from now, ERIN BROCKOVICH is worth a look. But just remember Olympia Dukakis' retort to Cher in MOONSTRUCK - "Playing it safe is the dumbest thing a woman like you can do."
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哇塞！真够长滴！！。。。
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故事简介：由于命运驱使，离过两次婚，还有三个孩子，没有工作经验的艾琳•劳克维奇（朱莉娅•伯茨扮演）到了艾德-梅斯利（艾伯特•菲尼扮演)的律师事务苏。她缠着梅斯利，劝诱，央求他给自己一份工作。他不情愿地雇她为文员。在查房地产档案时，她发现一些病历，之后，为揭露一个大的公用事业公司的秘密她展开了调查，该公司涉嫌污染一个小镇的供水。随着事件的风险越来越大，没有接受过教育和培训的艾琳得用她的才智和天生的同情心来劝服小镇居民，让他们不要只做局外人，更应参与到这起事件中。
从上述描述中可以明显地看出，《永不妥协》走的是以前电影的老路。《诺玛蕾》已经给我们展现了一个勇敢的蓝领女性与大公司斗争的故事；《大审判》展现了不拉帮结派的律师们得面对让人恐惧的法律挑战的故事。隔壁自愿照顾她三个孩子的邻居哈雷.戴维森骑辆摩托车，甚至这儿也有点《面具》中被赶走的骑摩托车人的影子。一部有过这么多影院历史的电影，要想再次让观众记住，只有两种选择：或另辟蹊径，自探险路或按部就班，追随大众。编剧和导演可就故事内容和电影寻求新的出路。他们可以避开众人的陈词滥调和殷切期望，寻求完全独创的东西。但若另辟险路，一步失误，就会令普通观众和期望过高的影迷失望，这样双重的打击会使电影彻底崩溃。
[ 本帖最后由 rabbit13579 于 2010-12-13 16:02 编辑 ]
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还有，待续。。。
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或者他们可以这样想，在呈现现实生活的故事时，几乎没有新的选择，他们只需确保观众兴奋点的稳定。 史蒂文•索德博格和编剧苏珊娜•格兰特选择了后者，因此从了众。索德博格的《战略高手》比《菩提树下》给了我们更多看点。在这部影片中，不论是故事情节还是表现方式，都不是原创。事实上，《永不妥协》是个出影星的地方，因此他没有运用在最近两部影片中非线性的剪辑方法，而那种方法正是他的专长。
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索德博格之前说自己计划拍《11号海域》以及要把BBC上的电视剧《非法交易》（关于一个贩毒的头儿最后发现自己的女儿也成了一个越境贩毒者）拍成电影，想想这些胡话和自己最近的电影，他似乎正一部接一部地拍，因为他自己搞制片。在开始拍《非法交易》前，他正在摄影棚里制作《永不妥协》的图片，这似乎也太遭了点。如果再拍一部更现实版的《永不妥协》（为了比较，认真关注一下真艾琳•劳克维奇之前伴演的女服务员这一配角），也不必考虑和伯茨那样有声望的人合作，就应该会有很大的不同（很可能会更好)，如果能看看，会很有趣吧！
这是个很引人注目的角色，伯茨很努力地拍。这部戏会使人记起她在《现代灰姑娘》中扮演的突破性的角色。《现代灰姑娘》主要讲妇女的故事，可不幸的是，这部影片在最近电影流行之前就播出了。确实值得一试。她刻薄，但坚强而且朴实。唯一的问题是，伯茨给了自己太多的包袱，总觉得自己塑造不出个性独特的角色。因此，对于朱莉娅•伯茨扮演的具有传奇色彩的角色，我们从不会感到惊讶，这很糟糕。新泽西电影公司选用一个大家不熟知的女演员，还不降低该片的票房预算，真是个奇迹。事实上，詹妮特•麦克蒂尔很像真正的艾琳，她在《杂草》中也有相似的巨大转折，这使一些批评家称她在该片的表演为“1999年的表演”。
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干嘛要找人翻译这个？
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在接近晚年的演艺生涯中，这很有希望成为菲尼事业一个有趣的开始，他始终给角色注入怪辟的个性和真实性情，这在伯茨的表演中是从来没有的。恰好撞上那毫无意义又令人厌烦的《暗夜惊狂》（真是浪费了一个好名字，还有比这更糟糕的电影吗）的人们很是不幸，他们觉得看他的电影还不如买一张赛马券的想法可以得到宽恕，因为枯燥无味的电影是梅斯利好电影的铺垫。作为一个兢兢业业，小心营生的人，他的命运更加坎坷，比因为需要而工作的克劳维奇失去的还多。菲尼没有不依不饶，自私自利，他在铁石心肠和让艾琳糊弄自己之间做到了很好的平衡。如果在明年的下一届颁奖季节来临之时，有人还记得这部电影，真遗憾，那些不好的影片将要付出代价。
不幸的是，由于固定的观众，环球没有给《永不妥协》留下推销的机会。预告片埋没了伟大的评论家，也挥霍了那些“告告他们，姑娘”的最佳时机。那些愿意花8.5美元的人，想看看艾琳和她的故事有什么值得分享的，结果发现这个非常漂亮的人儿却在环球市场部，于是确信影片没什么新奇的。喜欢《永不妥协》一点也不难。影片在女主人公不断扩大的职业生活和由此给家庭生活带来的影响之间灵活地转换。应该播什么，跳过什么，影片做出了许多明智的决择。只要人们觉得好，它就会成为永恒的主流明星云集的影片。希望影片能安然无恙地上映。不过不要期望过高。在未来的半年内，不论是在多放映场电影院还是出租房，作为一种绝对安全的外出活动，《永不妥协》都值得一看。不过记住奥林匹娅•杜卡基斯在《发晕》中对谢尔法的反驳“一个女人做的最愚蠢的事就是她的表演毫无风险，不会出错。”
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