THE PELICAN BRIEF
A film review by Mark Brader
This article is in the public domain
Alfred Hitchcock used to say that some movies were slices of life, but "*I* give people slices of *cake*." Well, Hitchcock is alive again, and his name is Alan J. Pakula. THE PELICAN BRIEF is one of the best thrillers I've seen for a long time.
The title refers to the film's McGuffin: the reason why two justices of the U.S. Supreme Court were assassinated in the film's opening minutes. Law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) sets herself the exercise of figuring out that reason. Soon after, a narrow escape from death convinces her that she must have guessed right, and also that in this case it is not safe to go to the police.
So now she is on the run, from New Orleans to Washington to New York, while she tries to turn her suppositions into a solid case against the chief villain. Along the way she makes the good decision to trust a Washington reporter, Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), and now it's two smart people against a set of adversaries who are also smart, and well connected, and well equipped, and considerably more numerous, and entirely willing to kill.
The movie is 2 hours and about 25 minutes long, almost certainly the longest thriller I've ever seen. But it did not seem padded, except for the surprisingly long denouement. During the heart of the movie, Pakula's direction and pacing just kept the movie flowing--and my adrenaline along with it.
And that direction is exceptionally restrained. There are several murders during the movie, but they generally take place off-screen. The chief villain is seen, as far as I can recall, only in a photograph--this is Darby's story, we never stay long away from her point of view, and we learn his fate only when she does.
(Pakula does show us more blood than Hitchcock would have, but he does not linger on it. For those who are counting, there is also no nudity--though for some of us male viewers, Julia Roberts's kilowatt smile can have an equivalent effect. This too is used in restrained fashion.)
This is a director's movie more than an actor's movie; only competence rather than brilliance was required of the performers. Roberts delivers this in the lead role, as does Washington, and so do a number of well-known actors in smaller parts. (I won't try to enumerate everyone from memory; see one of the other recently posted reviews for a cast list.)
I haven't read John Grisham's book that the movie was based on, and judging by what I've seen in those other reviews, that's just as well. There are plenty of authors whose books are just too complex for film adaptations to retain much of their content, and by those remarks and the similar remarks made when THE FIRM came out, it looks as though Grisham must be one of them.
I therefore recommend highly that thriller fans, and Hitchcock fans in particular, see the movie--unless they have already read the book.
-- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com .
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