Julia Roberts: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

2. Erin Brockovich - Erin Brockovich (2000)

You could boil Erin Brockovich down to a fairly simple idea: of a single woman (and her bra) who takes on the man, and the world, and triumphs to a calvalcade of empower female whooping and ironic bra burning, as men's testicles wither in the silver-lit dark of the cinema. Wonderfully evocative, isn't it? But it's not true, despite some of the more militant marketing messages that presented Erin Brockovich as a coat-hanger for feminist principles and gender liberation to the detriment of the actual story, which, lest we forget, is about a real woman, and a really bad situation. As the titular Brockovich, Roberts makes a mockery of the persistent accusations that she has concentrated too hard on being a movie star, as opposed to being a good actor, by showing just how good a performer she can be. Her performance is irresistible, channelling the moxy and enraged spirit of some of Hollywood's most famous powerful actresses - and not least Katherine Hepburn - with liberal splashes of outrageous language and behaviour to bring modernity to the classic notes.