Grade: B+

Verdict: Julia Roberts delivers in a funny, down-to-earth movie about an everyday mom with business spunk. Call it "Working-Class Girl."

Details: Starring Julia Roberts and Albert Finney. Directed by Steven Soderbergh. Rated R for profanity. 2 hours, 11 minutes.

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Review: If Julia Roberts is already Forbes' richest media magnate, her new movie, "Erin Brockovich," will only make her richer and more paparazzi-popular than ever.

It's a Julia Roberts whom audiences have only rarely seen. Remember "Mystic Pizza"? In "Erin," she's pure working class. As a twice-divorced mother with one child on her hip and two in tow, Roberts shines in the real-life story of a little-educated California woman who, without a law degree but with a lot of pluck, helps crash a big-time company responsible for devastating health problems in a small, dirt-poor town.

Part "Norma Rae" tossed with a bit of "Working Girl," this is Roberts' movie from the get-go. She clomps around in Candies high heels and wears short-short skirts. She battles roaches scurrying around her infested kitchen. She juggles creditors, jiggles her breasts in tight-fitting sundresses to disarm men and unleashes a steady stream of brash, often profanity-filled put-downs at uppity people who get in her way.

It's a star turn in a mostly believable and inspiring, down-to-earth film. The jokes fly, and the drama's emotional level ratchets up as our audacious heroine, a former Miss Wichita with natural, unformed smarts but not much tact, bulls her way past big-business blockades and stuffy-lawyer suits.

In 1993, the real Erin Brockovich, a divorced woman with three small children and no legal training, walked into the law firm of Ed Masry (portrayed in the movie with bumbling charm by Albert Finney), uncovered a contaminated-water scandal in a real estate file and eventually helped round up 600 plaintiffs in a hard-fought case against $30 billion company PG&E.

Like "Norma Rae," it's a gritty, gutsy tale of pure human tenacity. But it digs deeper than that Oscar-winning film, not only in portraying its main character's relationship with men (in this case, a sweet, longhaired biker played by Aaron Eckhart), but in depicting the internal mommy war that often plagues women who choose career over the stay-at-home life.

Luckily, Steven Soderbergh directs. One smart moviemaker, he has a knack for punching up good material ("Out of Sight") and making other movies ("The Limey") a lot better than they'd be in someone else's hands. In "Erin," he eschews the provocative, time-quirky point of view that he used in both "Out of Sight" and "Limey" and settles for a more linear structure that fits the film's hard-knocks morals.

Soderbergh's camera also lingers at opportune moments to increase "Erin's" emotional jolt. Plunging into workaholism, Erin misses her baby's first words but is slowly reduced to tears while driving home as her boyfriend tenderly relates the event as she listens on her car phone. Later, there's a dynamite breakup scene between Roberts and Eckhart that at first flips the genders in life's age-old debate over work and family.

At times, the movie can't seem to help itself and descends into pat portrayals of book-smart lawyers completely out of their element in the plaintiffs' rugged lives.

But most of "Erin's" charm is Roberts. She has made acting look easy in lesser roles in pinup-pretty movies such as "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Notting Hill." Here, she more than proves that she's got acting chops.

And with the Oscars coming up in nine days, she's now primed to arrive at the awards ceremony and, once again, command the spotlight. It doesn't matter that she's not even nominated. She's got "Erin Brockovich." She's got game.

— Bob Longino, Cox News Service