Erin Brockovich is a 2000 American biographical legal drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Susannah Grant.

[3] The film is a dramatization of the true story of Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts, who initiated a legal case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company over its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident.

Erin is given files for a real estate case where the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering to purchase the home of Donna Jensen, a resident of Hinkley, California.

Erin is surprised to see medical records in the file and visits Donna, who explains that she had simply kept all her PG&E correspondence together.

The Jensens' claim for compensation grows into a major lawsuit, but the direct evidence only relates to PG&E's Hinkley plant, not to the senior management.

Knowing that PG&E could slow any settlement for years through delays and appeals, Ed takes the opportunity to arrange for disposition by binding arbitration, but a large majority of the plaintiffs must agree to this.

Embry gives Erin the documents, which include a 1966 memo proving corporate headquarters knew the water was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, did nothing about it, and advised the Hinkley operation to keep this secret.

The idea for the film came to be when executive producer Carla Santos Shamberg happened to learn about Erin Brockovich's story due to sharing a chiropractor with her.

[4] Producers courted Callie Khouri[6] and Paul Attanasio[7] to write the script, but after they passed, screenwriter Susannah Grant was hired.

[8] To ensure the script’s accuracy, Grant said she spent weeks going over the trial transcripts, Hinkley water board records, and notes made by Brockovich during the investigation.

[4] Said Soderberg: "It’s rare to find human-sized heroes, and I was just captivated by [Erin] and her relationship with Ed and the fact that it was a story about people who made certain sacrifices and stood on certain principles without being a screed.

[9] Santos Shamberg pictured Julia Roberts in the lead role from the outset, but producers thought her casting would be a long shot.

However, the script was slipped to Roberts' agent and the actress expressed enthusiasm in taking on the lead role and working with Soderbergh.

[4] The scene where a PG&E attorney is afraid to drink from a glass of water after Brockovich and Masry inform her that it came from Hinkley wells was altered for dramatic effect, but did actually take place during a trial.

The critics consensus reads, "Taking full advantage of Julia Roberts's considerable talent and appeal, Erin Brockovich overcomes a few character and plot issues to deliver a smart, thoughtful, and funny legal drama.

Erin, single mother of three, a former Miss Wichita who improbably rallies a community to take on a multi-billion-dollar corporation, is the richest role of her career, simultaneously showing off her comic, dramatic and romantic chops".

[28] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote, "Roberts shows the emotional toll on Erin as she tries to stay responsible to her children and to a job that has provided her with a first taste of self-esteem".

[29] In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B+" rating and wrote, "It's a delight to watch Roberts, with her flirtatious sparkle and undertow of melancholy, ricochet off Finney's wonderfully jaded, dry-as-beef-jerky performance as the beleaguered career attorney who knows too much about the loopholes of his profession to have much faith left in it".

[30] Sight & Sound's Andrew O'Hehir wrote, "Perhaps the best thing about this relaxed and supremely engaging film (for my money the best work either the director or his star has ever done) is that even its near-fairytale resolution doesn't offer a magical transformation".

[31] In her review for The Village Voice, Amy Taubin wrote, "What's pretty original about the picture is that it focuses an investigative drama based on a true story around a comic performance".

[79] While the general facts of the story are accurate, there are some minor discrepancies between actual events and the movie, as well as a number of controversial and disputed issues more fundamental to the case.

In the film, Erin Brockovich appears to deliberately use her cleavage to seduce the water board attendant to allow her to access the documents.

[82] George Halaby, played by Aaron Eckhart in the film, along with Brockovich's ex-husband Shawn Brown, alleged that she had an affair with Masry.