VIDEOS TO GO: Five favorites for you to consider

For the News & Messenger

With a dearth of quality video releases this week, we turn to our popular semi-regular feature, Five Favorites. In this column, your humble critic picks five films worth watching that have a particular
something in common — a star, a director, a genre, etc.

This time, our focus is one of cinema’s most intriguing and successful actresses. She’s displayed a remarkable range in her acting, from romantic comedy to fact- based drama. The camera has a
fascinating relationship with her, often kind, sometimes hesitant, always interesting.

One thing is consistently true about her work: Julia Roberts never fails to catch your eye and your attention. Here, in no particular order, are my Five Favorites among her many films:

» “Pretty Woman” (1990)— Though the “hooker with a heart of gold” may have been a shop-worn cliché, Roberts gave it a bracing jolt of popularity in this mega-hit. She played Vivian, a small-town girl who
followed the wrong guy to Los Angeles and ended up as a streetwalker. She meets wealthy arbitrager Richard Gere, who sees something more in her and decides to pay her $3,000 to spend the next
several days with him while he closes a big deal.

The two discover they have more in common than either initially assumed, but can love overcome their differences?

Though cynics put the film down as an empty-headed romantic fantasy, both leads brought subtle touches to their work together and separately that got you rooting for them from the start. Roberts’ mix of
schoolgirl innocence and womanly sensuality helped earn her a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Fine supporting turns by Jason Alexander, Hector Elizondo, Laura San Giacomo and the late Ralph
Bellamy are additional assets.

Director Gary Marshall clearly displayed the skills and smarts to turn a script that was originally intended as a tough-minded tragedy into a love story with enough grit and grins to satisfy.

(Rated R for profanity, brief violence, drug references, sexual situations and brief nudity.)

» “Erin Brockovich” (2000)-Roberts took home the Oscar for her layered performance in this drama, based on a true story. She plays Brockovich, a former teenage beauty queen with a slightly wild past
and three kids for whom she’s both mother and father. After her car is wrecked and she’s injured in an accident, she hires attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney) to collect damages, but her testimony
unintentionally sinks the case.

In desperate need of income, Erin uses the guilt Masry feels over her case to get a low level job with his firm as a file clerk. While there, she stumbles onto a small series of complaints that mushroom
into one of the biggest class action suits against a public utility in history.

Despite her less than lawyerly manner of dress and uninhibited vocabulary, Erin soon becomes the vital linchpin between the numerous plaintiffs, who are suspicious of the lawyers and the firm. As Erin
struggles to maintain her role in the case, her personal life suffers as well. Even the new, more solid man in her life (Aaron Eckhart) begins to wonder if what she’s doing will be worthwhile.

Director Steven Soderbergh rests much of the film’s focus on Roberts and she’s more than up to the task. She creates a portrait of a woman toughened, but never disheartened, by life, someone who
believes in herself and knows how to speak the truth, even when those who need to hear it don’t want to. This is a heroine who earns everything she gets and who keeps winning out because she is
always underestimated by the bad guys and good guys alike.

Roberts and Finney play off each other beautifully and Soderbergh uses silences, montages and small moments like a master. Ten years after its release, the movie remains relevant and satisfying.
(Rated R for profanity and sexual content.)

» “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007) — Roberts turned off her customary thousand-watt charm for steely resolve and another well deserved Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her work in this
absorbing political comedy/drama. She starred opposite Tom Hanks, who played real-life Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson.

A hail-fellow-well-met wheeler dealer and womanizer, Wilson got deeply involved in the struggle of the Afghans to repel the invading Russian army in the early 1980s. His interest was piqued by the efforts
of his longtime friend/contributor/lover Joanne Herring (Roberts.) With Joanne pushing him and the assistance of a disgruntled CIA analyst (Phillip Seymour Hoffman,) Wilson funded a secret war that
ended up driving the Russians out, to the stunned surprise of the world.

Director Mike Nichols cuts to the heart of this fascinating true story, delivering a first-rate tale of politics and passion that makes you laugh, cry and think. Hanks, Roberts and Hoffman are at the top of
their collective games here and West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin’s script has all the gravitas of a well written novel. If ever there was a movie that should be required viewing for all newly elected
congressmen, senators and presidents, this is it.

(Rated R for profanity, sexual content, nudity and some drug content,)

» “Mystic Pizza” (1988) — This early Roberts effort teamed her with two other rising talents, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor, in a story of female friendship and perseverance. The trio play waitresses at a
pizza restaurant in Mystic, Conn.

During a significant summer in their lives, each faces some major choices. Gish’s Kat finds herself falling for the father of a child she’s been babysitting; Taylor’s Jojo is trying to decide if she really wants
to marry her longtime boyfriend — if it means giving up her identity. Robert’s Daisy is trying to figure out if the wealthy young man whose attention she’s attracted is interested in her or in showing up his
snooty parents. The restaurant’s owner (Conchata Ferrell) knows business could see a boost, but dreads a review by the crusty food critic at the local television station.

Though elements of the plot have a familiar ring to them, the three young leads bring a freshness and energy to their work that buoys the film.

A kind of female Diner or Stand By Me, the pleasure in this Pizza is in its fresh and vibrant “ingredients.” (Rated R for profanity, mild violence and sexual situations.)

» “Notting Hill” (1999) — Roberts was on the other side of the romantic fantasy in this sweet and funny comic love story. Hugh Grant is a simple bookseller with a store and home in London’s eclectic
Notting Hill neighborhood. One day, a woman walks into his store who turns out to be Anna Scott (Roberts), the world’s top box office star. An innocent flirtation soon blossoms into something more
serious, but complications from Scott’s fame and temper keep getting in the way.

Playing a character that seems tailored for her, Roberts gives the part a variety of shadings and sense of realism.

(Rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual situations.)

Joe Barber covers the DC area and local entertainment scene for the News & Messenger. His reviews and reports can also be heard Fridays through Sundays on WTOP-FM.