The Pelican Brief movie review (1993)
The screenplay keeps its cards close to its chest. We see various scoundrels who seem guilty, but there's no proof until late in the film, and a lot of blind alleys. Some amusement is offered by the character of the President, played by smiling, bland Robert Culp as a man with the appearance of George Bush and the involvement of Ronald Reagan. There are some obvious villains, including the President's chief of staff (Tony Goldwyn), but the movie depends on ominous threats and sudden deaths rather than on colorful, memorable bad guys.
Because the atmosphere is skillfully drawn, because the actors are well cast and because Pakula knows how to construct a sequence to make it work, the movie delivers while it's onscreen.
That it contains no substance or meaning is not its problem. It is a clever device to take your mind off your problems for 141 minutes. I enjoyed it until it was over; I will have little reason to think about it in the weeks to come; I will forget it in a year.
It is depressing to reflect that this shallow exercise in Washington conspiracy has been directed by the same man who made a great film, "All the President's Men," on the same subject.
Depressing, too, to remember that both films center on the work of investigative newspapermen - Woodward and Bernstein, who were smart, aggressive and political in the earlier film, and Washington's character, who is smart, brave, shallow and utterly apolitical in this one.
One thing the movie proves conclusively is the value of star power. Julia Roberts, returning after two years off the screen, makes a wonderful heroine - warm, courageous, very beautiful. Denzel Washington shows again how credible he seems on the screen; like Spencer Tracy, he can make you believe in almost any character.
Together they have a real chemistry, so potent that after the movie was over, I heard people complaining that they were never "allowed" to have a love affair. Any romance would have been rather tactless, of course, considering that the story takes place in the week or two immediately after her lover has been blown to pieces. Maybe with a Grisham story you tend to forget details like that.
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