Chic Chick Flicks

Video reviews by Naomi Bannister

This month I’m reviewing chick flicks. I wouldn’t have put “Erin Brockovich” in this category, until I watched it with a bloke who carped from beginning to end. Save yourself the grief of having to shoosh someone all the way through it and watch it with a girlfriend or three.
The movie is based on a true story. Erin Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, was a twice-divorced, unemployed, broke mother of three who talked her way into a job with Ed Masry’s legal firm (Masry is played by Albert Finney). While doing the filing she discovered some paperwork that didn’t make sense. Curiosity led her to follow it up, and she stumbled on a case of water pollution which was causing life-threatening illnesses for a whole community.
Through her persistence and hard work she and Masry built up a case against the power company causing the pollution. Brockovich interviewed dozen of people in the town of Hinkley and developed close personal relationships with them.
But in some ways this is just background: the real story is Brockovich. She is a strong-willed, independent-minded woman with an unconventional dress sense. She clomps through the movie in ridiculous shoes, refusing to be held back by the social rules that might restrain the rest of us. She’s rude and aggressive, but passionate and hard-working at the same time.
This is a role made for Julia Roberts, and she manages to portray the character in an honest and sympathetic way. What could easily have been cliched is not, although the breasts and the shoes are a bit of a distraction.
This movie is pure Hollywood, but it’s well made and it’s fun. The real Erin Brockovich has a cameo in the film, as does her boss Ed Masry - look out for the scene in the diner.
Shazzy at Civic Video usually turns up her nose at the videos I like, and vice versa. We both liked this, so it might be one of those movies almost everyone can enjoy.
I wish I could say the same for “Mansfield Park”. There was never any doubt that this was a chick flick - Jane Austen and all that. Think “Pride and Prejudice”. This film looked promising: a costume drama with a contemporary twist. But not without the usual Austen themes of the superficial versus the worthy.
It is the story of Fanny Price, played by Frances O’Connor. Fanny’s mother married for love and lives in poverty, while her aunt married for money and lives on a country estate, Mansfield Park. The precocious Fanny is sent as a child to live with the rich relatives. She and her cousin Edmund become close friends and have shared interests and values. Fanny grows up to be serious and talented, but with a bit of a wild streak.
Enter Henry and Mary Crawford. They don’t have Fanny and Edmund’s moral scruples and strength of character, although we don’t know that at first. The story develops around their actions and love interests, and has an almost entirely predictable twist at the end.
I enjoyed the first part of this film, but then it went flat. It’s as though Fanny Price has the stuffing knocked out of her. In contrast to Erin Brockovich, she is someone who minds her manners, feels inferior to the others in the household in which she lives, and says nothing even when she has an opinion. She has some things in common with Brockovich - witty, smart, warm - but it’s 1806 and unfortunately she knows her place.
I’m a huge fan of Frances O’Connor, who is mesmerising as usual, especially in the first half. But the scene stealer is Embeth Davidtz, who plays Mary Crawford. She is lively and engaging. Her character is the bad one, and maybe it’s because Fanny is simply too good that I lost interest in her. In the end it turns into a soggy love story. I think Jane Austen might have been a little disappointed.
The film has a contemporary look. Lovely costumes, some of which I wouldn’t mind having in my wardrobe, and beautiful, appropriately sumptuous photography.