She’s broke; she only has 17 dollars at her bank account, and no jobs; she’s a mom of three kids, divorced two times; she was hit by a crazy Jaguar and broke her neck. She has all means to be desperate.

But she breaks into a grin. And “F***” is one of her mantras. When life f***s you, you simply f*** it back. Like Erin, most of us are empowered by the simplicity of a dogged optimism—we feel that there’s nothing we can’t do even though there’s always something out of control, out of our expectations, to which we completely subject ourselves. Nevertheless, Erin’s crazy heat is irresistibly warming us, obsessing us with the idea that we have nothing to fear.

But reality doesn’t always come up to the ideal movie version. Erin has her charms of daring spirits, moving us from hopeless and endless swamps of life to a newborn being with a morbid sense of self-confidence, but what if after a while, her story is slowly forgotten, when we struggle again, come to terms with life’s unfairness, remain secure of a comfortable provision, and retreat back to the safe and mundane pattern of the status quo. We stick, we lose, we herald no miracles.

The point about Erin Brockovich is that we do not forget we still have the guts to confront with bad luck, a break-up, an outrageous boss or a lost opportunity. Everyday is a winding road, yeah, and we just have to look a little bit closer.