If you love Julia Roberts, one-liners and a clear-cut world where good and bad people are easy to distinguish, go see Erin Brockovich. Otherwise, this has little to offer.

As a feisty single mother of three, Roberts flashes her thousand-watt smile to maximum effect and unleashes obscene diatribes at the mean people who try to keep her down. Usually those people wear suits and represent big, evil corporations who cover up their misdeeds.

The whole film is a set-up, and while it may be satisfying to see Erin (Roberts) battle Goliath, it doesn't exactly challenge the intellect. The story drags between the punch lines, most of which are revealed in the trailer.

The story is Erin's quest for justice from the utility that poisoned a Californian community's water supply, after talking her way into a low-level job at a law firm. It's also about her struggle for respect and to drag her family out of poverty. This offers the perfect opportunity to empower and celebrate women.

Yet the most unsympathetic characters are female. Erin's co-workers ostracize her simply because she dresses provocatively and the uptight lawyer who takes over Erin's work suffers humiliations galore when she contacts the lower-class people Erin befriended.

The endless parade of skimpy outfits Erin wears - all displaying parts of her bra - seem designed to make her an object of ridicule to the audience. Writer Susannah Grant (Ever After) presents a superficial portrait of Erin's relationship with her boyfriend George (Aaron Eckhart). First they're neighbours, then they're in love, but it's never clear why - or why George wants to be with an ornery, distant woman who works all the time.

The tension between Erin and her boss Ed Masry (Albert Finney) is much more convincing as Ed is torn between needing Erin to make a case against the utility and his discomfort with her style and dress.

Director Steven Soderbergh (The Limey; Sex, Lies and Videotape) makes us suffer through several abrupt cuts and slow-paced scenes. There are some nice touches, such as Erin's deep-felt, yet subdued, reaction to missing her youngest daughter's first words. Yet for the most part, Roberts relies on her trademark smile and long legs. The film fails to live up to its potential.