The Pelican Brief ** (1993, Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard) – Classic Movie Review 6373

Screen-writer/ producer/ director Alan J Pakula’s sleek and polished 1993 movie was the second of John Grisham’s legal thriller novels to hit the screen – after The Firm (1993) with Tom Cruise.

But it suffers from the same over-production, over-extended running time (141 minutes) and grandiose air of its own self-importance that make it occasionally seem stuffed and mounted and placed in a museum.

The other shared problem is the difficulty of accommodating an inappropriately glossy superstar performance by an actor who does not easily fit into the milieu of the super-smart upper reaches of the US law game.

In this case it is Julia Roberts who never really persuades as an eager-beaver law student called Darby Shaw, who is being taught by her lover-teacher Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard), and who, in just one brief week of study, figures out the titular Pelican Brief. It is a plot to kill a couple of Supreme Court judges annoyingly in the way of a zillionaire’s plans to develop a wildlife area.

It is the US President himself, amusingly played by Robert Culp, who brings the film’s few moments of tension and humour.

Roberts is game enough, and the classy star support cast are a huge asset – Denzel Washington as Gray Grantham, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James B Sikking as FBI Director Denton Voyles, William Atherton, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Hume Cronyn. And the smooth, posh production is another, with cinematography Stephen Goldblatt and score by James Horner.

John Grisham’s legal thriller The Client followed in 1994.

Julia Roberts celebrated her 50th birthday on 28 October 2017 with a hit movie – Wonder.

Alan J Pakula, the director of Klute (1971), Sophie’s Choice (1982), All the President’s Men (1976) and Presumed Innocent (1990), died in a freak road accident on 19 November 1998. RIP also Robert Culp (1930–2010), James Horner (1953–2015), John Heard (1946–2017), Sam Shepard (1943–2017).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6373

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