ERIN BROCKOVICH
Erin Brockovich-Ellis is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck.
This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in.
With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss.
While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners, that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
What she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area.
As she digs deeper, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her law firm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Maybe this movie is not the right choice for action fans, but that is the only restriction of my otherwise fullest recommendation for this movie.
It has everything, ranging from real-life documentary through love story via comedy to tragedy.
And it is so lovingly done, and played so well.
And it also has a wonderful soundtrack.
To all the non-English Europeans: Get the DVD or original VHS, because the dubbed translated versions aren't quite like the original in terms of atmosphere created.
IT'S THE RAGE (aka ALL THE RAGE)
Handguns figure in the intertwining lives of nine people.
Warren shoots his wife Helen's lover and his defense is that he thought he was shooting an intruder.
She leaves him; the lawyer helps her get a job with a nutty, reclusive computer wizard who waves a pistol about, sometimes at Helen.
Tennel, the computer geek's ex-assistant, lands a video-store job and is smitten by Annabel Lee, an aggressive street kid who likes complaining about men to her pistol-packing psychotic brother to set him off.
In secret, Annabel starts an affair with the lawyer, who has both a pistol and a gay lover, who becomes jealous.
He has a pistol too. A cool (and armed) cop stays on Warren's tail.
"It's the Rage" is actually the title of this movie, which I saw the other night on cable, and it's an odd duck of a film, starting out with Jeff Daniels' character shooting a man in his living room.
He explains to his horrified wife (Joan Allen) that the man was a burglar, but she discovers, with even more horror, that it's actually her husband's business partner.
What the @#^k??! Then, some other characters are introduced, each one crazier than the other (played by Gary Sinese, Robert Forster, Anna Paquin, Giovanni Ribisi, all great).
Then, the characters start interacting, in extremely clever, well-written ways.
The one thing that unites these loonies is that they're all on the edge and they all have guns. (Is that two things?)
Consider the possibilities. Or better yet, see the film.