Erin Brockovich(2000)
Submitted by Julio M
Oscar winner: Best Actress – Julia Roberts.
POOPER: (Thanks Curt)
Ed Masry (Albert Finney) wins $333 Million from Pacific Gas & Eectric for the afflicted resident of Hinkley, CA. He gives Erin (Julia Roberts) a $2 Million bonus.
LONG VERSION:
Over the course of the months after having started dating kindhearted, next-door biker neighbor George (Aaron Eckhart), and delving deeper into the lurid details and testimonies of the monumental case being built against Californian gas/power giant PG&E, Erin (Julia Roberts) gains a great deal of personal confidence, even greater trust from her boss Ed (Albert Finney) and the plaintiffs who have put their faith in her determination and persuasiveness, and enough expertise in the matter to rival any seasoned lawyer. However, it does not come without a price: the amount of time she puts into her work causes her relationships with her three children and George to become strained; he ends up leaving her, tired of feeling constantly relegated to the back burner.
Despite the amount of gathered evidence clearly pointing towards the company as guilty of the tremendous pollution in the Hinkley area, which, in turn, has caused hundred of local residents to be wracked with multitudes of health conditions, Ed and Erin run into a major speed bump: there appears to be nothing tying this now-mega-class-action-lawsuit to the PG&E Corporation Headquarters in San Francisco; it only goes as far as the regional Hinkley plant. Moreover, the company does not seem to want to offer anything more than $20 million, which is deemed insufficient for the harm caused to so many hundreds of people.
A beacon of hope appears when Ed approaches colleague Kurt Potter (Peter Coyote), a toxic tort expert, to assist in the reorganization of the case; this originally dismays Erin a bit, but she relents. Together, both firms manage to convince PG&E to agreeing into having the case overseen by means of binding arbitration. It would allow for all defendants to be seen and heard in a timely and swift manner, and give way to a collective verdict of anywhere between $50 and $400 million in damages. The downsides are that PG&E demands, at least, 90% of the plaintiffs agreeing and signing to it; as well as whatever verdict, in favour or against, being final and non-appealable.
While dealing with a sudden downturn in her own health and some of the plaintiffs starting to feel dejected with the course of the events -particularly Pamela Duncan (Cherry Jones), who complains to the local press against the lawyers-, Erin resolves to obtain all 634 signatures, even by going door-to-door if needed. During this time, she asks for help with her kids from George; he reluctantly agrees to return and, eventually, there is a hint of a reconciliation between them.
One night, while at a bar, the same shady-looking man who approached Erin at the barbecue gathering, earlier in the film, reappears. It is here he discloses his name is Charles Embry (Tracey Walter), he used to be a PG&E employee and he withheld important company documents he had been originally commissioned to destroy. Taken aback by this revelation and the sad admission that his cousin had recently died from diseases stemming from exposure to the hexavalent chromium as a plant employee, Erin has a sit-down with Charles, lets him tell his story and, as he reveals that “he wasn’t a very good employee”, obtains key documentation from him that includes a 1966 memo signed by Head Office, where, despite knowing about the poisonous water, they asked the Hinkley plant to hide it from the public. Erin and Ed relay this incriminating document, along with all 634 signatures from the Hinkley plaintiffs, to a shocked Kurt and Theresa (Keanne Cox).
The Judge awards $333 million in damages in favour of the Hinkley plaintiffs, of which $5 million would be for Donna Jensen (Marg Helgenberger) and her family; Erin and George go together in person to give the news to Donna, who cries of happiness and thanks Erin for her dogged efforts in making this a reality. Towards the end of the movie, Ed has moved the firm to a fancier building, he receives Erin’s bonus payment and, when he goes to give it to her and tries to explain “the amount she requested was not adequate”, she goes into an explosive tirade against him, only to find out he had actually requested to increase it to $2 million dollars, which leaves her speechless.
Title cards inform the verdict against PG&E in Hinkley was one of the largest of its kind in American history; PG&E was forced to take measures to properly line their containment