Tonight's Movie: The Pelican Brief (1993)

A few days ago I finally caught up with THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993), starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

I've always liked Roberts a great deal, and I enjoy Washington as well, but this film came out during a period in my life when I had young children and saw very few new-to-me films.

Consequently there are still many films from that era which I'm only now seeing for the first time. Another example is THE PAPER (1994) which I saw earlier this year. The silver lining is it's fun to finally see films I missed "back in the day"!

THE PELICAN BRIEF was written and directed by Alan J. Pakula based on the novel by John Grisham.

As the movie begins, two Supreme Court justices are assassinated. (The shocking nature of this is somewhat underplayed, particularly given what follows.) An inquisitive young law student, Darby Shaw (Roberts), researches what the justices had in common in their court rulings and puts together a brief on what the motive may have been for the killings.

Darby gives the brief to her law professor and lover, the older, alcoholic Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). Callahan in turn shares the brief with a good friend in Washington. Shortly thereafter Callahan dies in horrific car explosion which was meant to kill Darby as well.

Darby goes into hiding, ultimately reaching out to reporter Gray Grantham (Washington). They have a scary time of it but ultimately prove Darby's theory as to who's responsible for the assassinations, and it's published by Grantham and his newspaper editor (John Lithgow).

THE PELICAN BRIEF at times gets a bit confusing trying to figure out who's good and bad -- can Gavin Verheek (John Heard), special counsel to the FBI director, or his boss (James B. Sikking) be trusted? What about the President (Robert Culp) or his top aide (Tony Goldwyn)? At times I wasn't sure whether the script was keeping secrets or I was missing essential clues.

Despite struggling at times to stay clear on the story as it was presented over a longish 141 minutes, I still very much enjoyed the film, which has appealing leads, an interesting supporting cast, and a terrific suspenseful mood, as one might expect from the director of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1974).

I'd add that certain moments in the film seem quite prescient in terms of politics and political moods three decades later, including a President who doesn't seem quite "with it," with his aide essentially running things.

Roberts and Washington are as appealing as ever as the gutsy detectives attempting to stay one step ahead of assassins. Not a great deal is required of them other than looking serious and worried, but they deliver on what's needed in the roles in perfect fashion.

Besides the supporting actors mentioned above, the film also features Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, William Atherton, Christopher Murray, and a young Cynthia Nixon. Among the supporting cast I especially enjoyed Lithgow and Sikking as the newspaper editor and FBI director. (A fun side note, I had seen Sikking, known for HILL STREET BLUES, on stage in a Los Angeles play roughly a decade earlier.)

The movie was filmed by Stephen Goldblatt, including location shooting in Louisiana and Washington, D.C.

I watched this movie via a very old widescreen DVD in a snapcase; it must be one of the oldest discs on our shelves, perhaps even dating from before we acquired a DVD player circa 2001. (The DVD was bought for another family member, and I'd just never gotten around to seeing it myself.) It was kind of hilarious realizing that the disc was so old that, due to the film's long running time, I had to turn it over partway through the movie! Dual-layer discs didn't exist back then.

THE PELICAN BRIEF is rated PG-13. There are a couple scenes featuring a great deal of blood but not gore.

The trailer may be viewed here.

All in all, this was an enjoyable suspense film. I wish more movies like it were released these days.

Post