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Having
seen the brilliant 'American Beauty' three days ago, and having lots of
time to waste, I headed for another movie which is being pushed by a
generous amount of hype by its promoters in India. Endless promos on TV
featuring the camera-magnetic Julia Roberts finally did incite me to go
and watch the movie.
That's what good promotion is all about, isn't it?
You would know the basic plot. Erin (Julia Roberts) is a single mother of
three kids, struggling to make ends meet. Unable to pay for babysitters,
she leaves her kids in the neighbouring houses (much to their ire), while
she goes around hunting for jobs to pay her debts and support the kids.
She finally wedges her way to a small job at a small law firm owned by an
apparent eccentric who's totally against hiring her. (How she gets the job
is funny to watch).
So Erin has a difficult time managing the job, also causing displeasure to
the
other female employees because of her 'Pretty Woman' dressing style.
However,
she takes particular interest in a case involving the citizens of a small
town in California and a chemical company. Using her sexuality discreetly,
she unearths secret reports of some sort of water contamination by the
chemical company. This further goes on to develop into a full fledged
legal war between the citizens of the town and the company.
Sounds drab? Indeed it is. In fact the second half is all about lawyers'
meetings, boardroom discussions and courtroom scenes. I'm personally not a
great fan of movies in which the people go about fast-talking about
plaintiffs, juries, appeals and why they legally can't slap demurrage
claims etc. Guess what? This movie is exactly like
that.
However, Julia Roberts still shines with luminous brilliance in this
forgettable flick. This film is all about Julia Roberts. She is simply
fantastic and has awesome screen presence. Only when she's on camera do
your eyes and ears become attentive in this otherwise boring film. She
seems to have used the same dresses she did in 'Pretty Woman'. She uses
the f-word about a zillion times in the movie, and it's great fun
listening to her various f-word concoctions and combinations. She just has
this 'thing', which makes the screen radiate when she's anywhere in it.
Let's call it the $20 million thing.
About the others...I don't even know their names. They're insignificant.
Not that anyone's acted badly or anything. But with Roberts around, how
much attention would you give them anyway?
I really believe that a good movie is one in which every scene keeps you
looking at the screen, and not want to go out and get more popcorn. Sadly,
this is the latter. But no amount of bashing would ever stop a Julia
Roberts fan from seeing this movie, and rightly so. She rises above
inadequacies in the script, camerawork, screenplay, ensuring that very
dollar out of the 20 million paid to her is redeemed.
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