Erin Brockovich (2000)

This is a very good film, and the scariest part about it is that it is true.
Here, Julia Roberts is Erin Brockovich, a single mom struggling to make ends meet. Her car is hit by this idiot, but because of her reputation, for lack of a better word, as she has been married and divorced twice, she loses the case and is in even more debt than she was before. She returns to her lawyer's office, and nearly begs for a job which he provides. It is while she is doing some simple filing that Erin stumbles upon an interesting real estate case which also has medical records involved. She does some further investigating and discovers something much bigger than either she or her boss, Ed Masry (Albert Finney) ever could have anticipated. However, because she has disappeared for some time, she loses her job and then uses extortion so she can get her job back along with benefits.
Erin continues with her investigation. As it turns out, the company PG & E poisoned the water of the small town of Hinckley with hexagonal chromium, which is extremely dangerous and is causing the people of Hinckley tons of health problems. Donna Jensen (Marg Helgenberger) is one of the main victims, dealing with benign tumors. In one of the most powerful scenes, she tells Erin that she was so used to the tests coming back benign, but this one is different. There is also another little girl dealing with a brain tumor. These are real people and they relate to Erin. Then enters the big guns, Kurt Potter (Peter Coyote) and his assistant. Though they are refined lawyers and have tons of money, the case almost falls apart because the people do not like them, they only want Erin.
In the end, there is a happy ending. Masry wins the case and receives an enormous amount of money. However, no amount of money will cure the people from their ailments, but at least PG & E finally admitted their guilt over destroying people's lives and livelihoods.
Erin is also a fully fleshed character, with her horribly skimpy outfits and her snapping at her new neighbor for making too much noise. George (an unrecognizable Aaron Eckhart) is her new neighbor, and is quite attracted to her, despite the fact that she admits right away that she has three children and been divorced twice. (Her exes are never mentioned by name or seen throughout the whole film.) Eventually, she and George do, despite her saying that it wasn't going to happen, hook up, but he also seems to enjoy taking care of the children for some time, though as the case begins to take over her life more and more, he gets more and more frustrated, believing that she is taking advantage of him, which is probably true. Her kids also don't react that well to the fact that Mommy isn't around that much, though once she finally explains herself to her oldest child, he understands.
The film is horribly enlightening, proving that the company does what they want, despite its harmful effects on the environment and the people drinking the tainted water. In addition to Robert's fine performance (though she was, at times, a bit over the top, but that is because of the crazy speeches written for her), Finney is also fantastic and fully deserved his Oscar nomination. Cherry Jones is also great in a small role of another affected mother who doesn't want to really become involved with the whole lawsuit.
One of Erin's greatest speeches is where she tells the people sent from PG & E to put a price on a uterus and spinal cord and then multiply that by one hundred because anything less than that wasn't worth her time. The point is made. This is a great film and one that I will, without a doubt, will certainly watch again. Grade: A