A-List: Julia Roberts
By Josh Spiegel
March 19, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Yes, that last one is confusing, but Roberts can't be faulted for a lack of diversity in her filmography. Even though she's best known for her romantic comedies such as Pretty Woman and My Best Friend's Wedding, the Oscar-winning actress has done much more than look pretty and tell a boy that she's just a girl, telling him that she...well, you know the rest. Like most movie stars, she can't claim perfection throughout all the films she's done (and let's just forget that America's Sweethearts and Runaway Bride ever happened, shall we?). Still, there's a reason she's still one of the most well-known and popular actress in the world. Let's take a look at the best of Julia Roberts.
Ocean's Twelve
Roberts was just fine in both Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve, but the strange ride that director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter George Nolfi take the audience through the final third of "Twelve" elevates it in my book. I realize that there are plenty of people who hate the admittedly outlandish twist that requires Roberts' character, Tess Ocean, to pretend to be the actress playing her. Still, with that and the equally out-of-left-field Bruce Willis cameo that features a running gag about the twist ending of The Sixth Sense, I can't help but collapse into giggles every time the frantic hotel room scene with a con that is doomed to fail begins. The rest of the movie - okay, the entire movie - is all about lots of famous people relaxing in Europe, but in her most insane moments, Roberts gives Tess a human face. I can even say I missed her presence from the 2007 sequel Ocean's Thirteen, as good a movie as that was.
Hook
Choosing this 1991 family film based on the famous J.M. Barrie story Peter Pan is mostly nostalgic, as this was a movie I watched plenty as I was growing up, ironically. Unlike most family films, Steven Spielberg's had a dark tone to it, especially when watching the adult Peter Pan's son destroying a room full of clocks as he recounted the many times his father had abandoned him for business instead of pleasure. As the irrepressible fairy Tinker Bell, Roberts is actually an inspired choice, even during the odd sequence where Tinker Bell, blown up to human-size height, tells Peter (Robin Williams, looking a bit too old to be lusted after by such a young woman) exactly how she feels about him. No matter; her performance is spritely and enjoyable even when some of the other actors become too shrill.
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Watching Confessions of a Dangerous Mind only a few years after its release doesn't dampen its appeal. Though the film, based on the autobiography of the same name, focuses on slimeball game-show host Chuck Barris, Roberts plays a femme fatale named Patricia Watson, meant to distract the host-cum-spy. Her chemistry with Sam Rockwell, as Barris, is never meant to elicit the same kind of sparks that she gets with George Clooney, a co-star in the film and its director, in a movie like Ocean's Eleven. Instead, Roberts plays the haughty card here very well, constantly getting involved with Barris but always seeming above it all, only doing it for a bit of fun. Though she ends up being a complete double-crosser, we never completely deny that she had some feelings for the lowlife Barris or...at least, she fooled everyone. What's more, Roberts being in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind fits perfectly, as it's hard to ignore the obvious influence that Steven Soderbergh's directorial style had on Clooney, also a regular in Soderbergh's work. Nowadays, common styles and actors are only found in Judd Apatow movies, but only a few years back, people like Clooney, Soderbergh, and Roberts were appearing in each other's work.
Erin Brockovich
Which brings us to Roberts' Academy Award-winning title role in Soderbergh's 2000 drama with Albert Finney (who showed up in Ocean's Twelve, how about that?) as an outspoken and brash woman who becomes a legal assistant uncovering a major water pollution scandal in California. Since the story is so amazing, it is, of course, a true story. One of the reasons that Roberts' performance works so well here, is so funny, so emotional, and so moving, is that it's shocking. Oh, a big deal was made about the clothes Roberts wore for the film, showing off her cleavage and other skin, but the word "brash" wasn't really associated with her previous roles. Bucking expectations, she conquers the movie with a tour-de-force performance that was more than worthy of the Oscar she won (though I could have done without the speech being repeated at the most recent Oscar ceremony); to be fair, the strongest aspect of the film has always been the snarky byplay between Roberts and Finney, feisty versus stuffy. The odd-couple pairing isn't unique to Erin Brockovich, but the two make it work, leading to a slickly entertaining legal drama.
Conspiracy Theory
It's been just over a decade since "Conspiracy Theory" made its way into theaters, but oh, how things have changed. A decade ago, the pairing of Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts was destined to soar, especially with skilled action director Richard Donner at the helm. What's more, the movie had Gibson playing against type as a completely deranged nut who just happened to be right about one particularly dangerous conspiracy and snared a Justice Department attorney named Alice Sutton into a fast-paced chase against Jean-Luc Picard. Okay, Patrick Stewart, but you know what I mean. Either way, the movie had plenty of action even if Gibson spent most of the film as a gibbering lunatic; though most movies with such a romantic pairing would have Roberts in Gibson's arms and bed quickly, her grudging acceptance of his looney theories makes for a far more interesting relationship. Conspiracy Theory isn't one of the movies that Roberts is remembered for and won't likely to be shown at her lifetime achievement ceremony, but it's definitely a worthy and underrated movie.