The Pelican Brief Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Two Supreme Court Justices have been assassinated. One lone law student has stumbled upon the truth. An investigative journalist wants her story. Everybody else wants her dead.
From the author of "The Firm" and "The Client" and the director of "Presumed Innocent" and "All The President's Men."
Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men, who's also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her, that states who probably, wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the preseident's men who read it, is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared. So, he adivises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend's friend at the FBI, he agrees to come meet her but before he does someone shoots him and takes his place. At the meeting, he was about to kill her when someone shoots him. She then decides to turn to Gray Grantham, an investigative reporter, who was contacted by someone who says he has info on the killings but backed out at the last minute. He then meets her and tells her what her brief is, and basically, the man she suspects is a good friend of the president, who is trying to manipulate the outcome of a trial that is now before the Supreme Court. Grantham tells her that her brief can harm the president and all what they have are theories, he asks her to help him but she wants to leave the country. When Grantham's editor tells him that they have nothing that he should drop cause the man she implicated is extremely powerful. Grantham's about to drop it when she says that she will help him. But can they stay alive?
| Julia Roberts | Darby Shaw |
| Denzel Washington | Gray Grantham |
| Sam Shepard | Professor Thomas Callahan |
| John Heard | FBI Agent Gavin Vereek |
| Tony Goldwyn | White House Chief of Staff Fletcher Coal |
| James Sikking | FBI Director Denton Voyles |
| William Atherton | Bob Gminski |
| Robert Culp | President |
| Stanley Tucci | Khamel |
| Hume Cronyn | Supreme Court Justice Rosenberg |
| John Lithgow | Smith Keen |
| Anthony Heald | Marty Velmano |
| Nicholas Woodeson | Stump |
| Stanley Anderson | Edwin Sneller |
| John Finn | Matthew Barr |
| Alan J. Pakula |
6.30 out of 10 (11678 votes)
Visitor Reviews
ERIN BROCKOVICH MEETS JOHN Q
posted on 13 Aug 2009Without the star presenced of Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, THE PELICAN BRIEF might not succeed. But these two megastars in their earlier days bring their own charisma to this Alan J. Pakula directed version of John Besteller Grisham's novel. A labyrinthine plot that sometimes seems convoluted and implausible takes the backseat to the reactions of its characters and the all too suspicious government.
Pakula, best known for ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and KLUTE, sets up our heroes in a conspiracy involving the assassination of two elderly supreme court justices. Roberts is a brilliant law student who comes up with titular brief, and then has to turn to reporter Washington to help expose the high ranking parties responsible. It's all shameless manipulative plotting, but the leads do well and we find ourselves rooting for them. The supporting cast has its ups and downs--the ups: the ever dependable Tony Goldwyn (Joshua, Ghost) as the presidential press secretary; John Lithgow as Washington's irascible boss; Stanley Tucci as the chameleonic assassin; and John Heard as a friend of Washington's who gets snuffed. The downs: Robert Culp as a mentally challenged president, and William Atherton in a wasted role as an FBI agent.
I haven't read the book, but the movie succeeds as a paen to the talents of its leads.
Pelican Face
posted on 09 Aug 2009In the first 220 years of the USA, not a single Supreme Court Justice was ever assassinated. In the first ten minutes of this movie, TWO Supreme Court Justices get whacked. Whatever happened to bribery? Of course, Julia Roberts is some kind of mongoloid Law student, and her term paper regarding some environmental risk to a property happens to be what this major corporation is concerned about. The MEGALO Corporation will lose billions unless the Supreme Court rules in their favor. Julia Roberts' term paper may expose the secret that MEGALO is so concerned about. Everyone knows that the MASS MEDIA and THE PUBLIC read student term papers voraciously, and rather than ignore Ms. Roberts' term paper (which nobody but her teacher read); MEGALO decides they must kill Julia Roberts and her teacher and anyone else who has read the Term Paper. The rest of the movie is about Julia Roberts having NEAR-DEATH experiences as people try to shoot her or blow up her car whenever she visits her local Dunkin Donuts or otherwise tries to lead a normal life. Denzel Washington reads her Term Paper and decides that he must also protect Julia Roberts from death (instead of writing a story about it, since he is a newspaper reporter). Eventually, the world reads Julia Roberts' Term Paper, and she gets an A+. THIS MOVIE IS THE WORST. THE DUMBEST PLOT ON EARTH, PLUS JULIA ROBERTS' BIG TOOTHY GRIN.
VERY GOOD
posted on 17 Jul 2009I read the book and was pleased with the movie. Very pleased. It captured the essence of the book without being too glosy (like a Time to Kill) or straying too far from the source material (like The Firm).
Julia Roberts is terrific - so emotionally accessible and convincing as a brillant law student. Denzel Washington is solid - they have some nice chemistry. Also impressive is the supporting cast - I liked the score.
Why does it get 4 stars? This DVD is one where you must flip over the disc to watch the last 50 minutes. This is a joke. Not only did this movie make nearly $200 million worldwide, but it got favorable reviews.
Warner Bros. needs to re-release the picture just for the fact that I want to watch the movie without having to flip the disc over. It is the year 2005 afterall.
"The Pelican Epic" Would Have Been a Better Title.
posted on 10 Jul 2009Up and down thriller that runs way too long in the end to be completely successful. "The Pelican Brief" is overall an above average film though as law student Julia Roberts uncovers the truth about the assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices. Soon her professor/lover Sam Shepard is killed in a car bomb explosion and Roberts is fearful for her life. She confides in Washington Herald reporter Denzel Washington and immediately they both start a long race to elude those behind the conspiracy. "The Pelican Brief" has some good ideas and director Alan J. Pakula executes most pretty well. However, the movie drags throughout and has a pacing that is way too imperfect. In the end, the production tried to stay way too close to the novel. Washington and Roberts together is worth the time, but really they deserved better than this. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
The second John Grisham adaptation of 1993 is a worthy follow-up to "The Firm".
posted on 10 Jun 2009Based on John Grisham's best-selling novel.Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) is a law student at Tulane who writes her own theory about who arranged for the assassination of two Supreme Court justices and why. The unfortunate thing is, her theory is right on the money, and once it starts circulating it results in a number of deaths. Investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) turns out to be the one person she can trust and rely on."The Pelican Brief" is a solid and entertaining (if lengthy) political / newspaper / legal thriller from the director of "All The President's Men". It keeps its grip thanks to genuinely good film-making and an excellent cast. The climax is reasonably suspenseful.To screenwriter / director Alan J. Pakula's credit, the villain of the movie - a stereotypically greedy and maniacal tycoon - is deliberately made mysterious and gets no actual screen time - except for an appearance in a key photograph.I've seen a couple of the big-screen Grisham adaptations, and they have all been pretty good. His novels do make for good movie material. I can't decide which one is the best, though...that's kind of tough.8/10
The only film I have seen where virtually nothing happened
posted on 10 Jun 2009I watched this film on a Saturday evening, at a prime time hour. It was reportedly an edgy sort of thriller, with Julia Roberts and Denzil Washington, who apparently gave excellent performances. I was looking forward to it with some suspense. And that suspense was just about the only suspense I got. I don't remember the length of the film, but it felt like well over 4 days, and it was not time well spent. This has to have been the only film I have seen where virtually nothing happened. Julia Roberts was unusually irritating throughout, Denzil Washington's character was hollow and watching it from beginning to end made me feel like I was watching a year-long golf tournament. I nearly fell asleep several times, and my overall reaction was that the film simply was a failure. Failure to convince, deliver or provide any entertainment or suspense whatsoever.2/10 - and it can count itself lucky to have got that
Good Suspense
posted on 09 Apr 2009Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) is a law student at Tulane who writes her own theory about who arranged for the assassination of two Supreme Court justices and why. The unfortunate thing is, her theory is right on the money, and once it starts circulating it results in a number of deaths. Investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) turns out to be the one person she can trust and rely on.
"The Pelican Brief" is a solid and entertaining (if lengthy) political / newspaper / legal thriller from the director of "All The President's Men". It keeps its grip thanks to genuinely good film-making and an excellent cast. The climax is reasonably suspenseful.
Engrossing plot typical of Grisham, but for me the closing scene makes this movie. It's so much more dramatic than just having Darby and Gray ride off into the sunset together.
Grisham won't be ashamed
posted on 24 Mar 2009Here is a rather good adaptation of John Grisham's novel, "The Pelican Brief". It's really better than "The Firm", also based on an excellent book by Grisham.Denzel Washington - a great actor, one of my favorites - is the perfect guy to embody the journalist Gray Grantham of the "Washington Post" ("Washington Herald" in the movie if you've noticed). The young Julia Roberts makes her beginning in Hollywood with a rather convincing Darby Shaw. Tony Golwyn is good in Fletcher Cole, too. So, a good cast for a good movie.Finally, Grisham's job is well respected, there's a good cast, we have a good moment of TV fun !
A great picture!
posted on 21 Mar 2009A minimum of violence, a minimum of special effects, a maximum of good acting. Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts play very well together. The suspense is tangible, but low-key, which makes it all the more suspenseful. One of Grisham's better stories, it shows his unhappiness with lawyers. I got the feeling from Julia Roberts that she was not acting, but that she was really involved with the Pelican Brief. It's not an action movie, but a potent movie. In light of today's politics, it is rather noteworthy. The photography is excellent, which contributes to the picture. It's a shame that Alan Pakula isn't around to do more pictures.
Pelican Brief--Super Addition to Our DVD Library
posted on 07 Mar 2009We have a big "library" of VHS movies. We do, of course, want to trade them out for the sharper DVD, but because of the cost, we have been in no hurry. You have made it possible to to go ahead and build up our DVD library faster because of the excellent new or like-new movies you offer at such great low prices. Now we have a beautiful copy of another of our favorites--Pelican Brief! Glad to do business with such reliable sellers.
Who killed the Supremes?
posted on 03 Mar 2009The usual paranoid bad guys: evil GOP president, the sinister CIA, the scary FBI and all their menacing hit men. The usual good guys: a very old Jewish U.S. Supreme Court Justice known for his defense of blacks, gays, American Indians [Native Americans], crooks and criminals - he hates cops and FBI agents, and one of his Brethren - a closet gay who likes to wear a disguise and watch homosexual porn as a local theater in Washington. Both of these left leaning gents are murdered as the movie begins. Then someone starts murdering other lefties, including a liberal constitutional law prof [Shepherd]. His gorgeous student/lover [Roberts] digs up some old legal proceedings and writes a student brief - The Pelican Brief. Why a pelican? See the movie. The student brief ties the evil conservative president to a more conservative and more evil oil baron, whom we never see on the screen or in the book. She has to be waxed, right? The broad knows too much. But as she dodges the knives and bullets of mysterious killers, who comes to her rescue but a fearless African-American reporter for the Washington Herald [the Washington Post in the novel]. Why Grisham went out of his way in the book to identify the reporter as a white man and his role is played by Denzel Washington in the movie, only Hollywood can explain.
Hollywood cowardice
posted on 22 Feb 2009I had to give this picture a very low rating--a 2--in large part because it offers hard evidence of the sorry persistence of racism in Hollywood into the 1990s. Think about it: a beautiful,young leading lady; a handsome, young leading man; a thriller where they both share danger and a commitment to justice. There's a love angle, right? WRONG. The makers of this film could not bring themselves to have Julia Roberts' and Denzel Washington's characters cross the color line and kiss each other. Huh????? In any other movie where the leads were played by WHITE PEOPLE, there'd be at least a kiss--if not a lot more. Chalk up another victory for corporate cowardice. A disgrace.
A good one, and well-acted
posted on 19 Dec 2008Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts are the leads in this dark suspenseful thriller. It's about a law student (Roberts) who discovers a conspiracy behind the murder of a couple of Supreme Court justices. Then, not surprisingly, when the bad guys realize what she knows, her own life is endangered. She turns to an investigative reporter for help, and together they go on the lam as fugitives. It's not great, great, great, but the chemistry between Washington and Roberts, the fear factor of being in hiding, and a great supporting cast will keep you too involved to risk leaving to go nuke another bag of popcorn without pushing the pause button.
The Good & Bad Of The Pelican Brief
posted on 28 Oct 2008Some of things I really appreciated from this political thriller was (1) no sappy romance taking away from the suspense and story; (2) very little profanity; (3) a number of interesting scenes that kept your attention for the full 141 minutes; (4) solid acting by the two leads, Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts; (5) nice visuals and nice sound.What I didn't appreciate was the usual Hollywood screen versions of the John Grisham novels, which means a fair amount of Liberal agendas, some subtle, some not so subtle. The message anyone against saving wildlife like the penguins has to be either crooked or a violent thug is preposterous. Early on, we hear a TV broadcaster proclaiming that the killings of two Supreme Court justices might have been by some group that also bombed abortion clinics, ACLU offices, etc. Of course - villainous right wingers hurting good-guy left wingers - what else? Isn't that the way it's always portrayed in the movies?? Too bad that bias political propaganda is in here because most of this film is just a very good suspense film and well done at that. Washington and Roberts are both fun to watch and they are up against so many suspicious-looking characters that it's a paranoid viewer's delight. They keep you guessing who you can trust and who you can't, which is fun, and helps make the time on this movie fly past.
Everyone I have told about the brief is dead.
posted on 10 Sep 2008Take any John Grisham novel and have it brought to screen, written and directed by Alan J. Pakula (Sophie's Choice, All the President's Men. To Kill a Mockingbird), and add Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington as the leads, and you have a movie that is worthy of 141 minutes of your life.I love political films. You know that if you have read my reviews. Political thrillers are especially great. This one is well worth watching for the story, the directing, and, most especially, for the lead actors. I do not think that Washington and Roberts have ever disappointed me - OK, there was that License to Kill in 1984.I won't synopsize - you can get that anywhere - but, I will say that you will not be disappointed. It's not a popcorn movie, you have to put some effort into watching it, but the rewards are great. And the chemistry between Roberts and Washington is fantastic!
Jon Monsarrat review: so-so thriller, too low key
posted on 11 Aug 2008The Pelican Brief is about a USA Presidential scandal, but it has nothing like the gripping pace of other Oval Office flicks. Mostly it concerns lawyers who can't fight and don't use guns, which is OK as far as realism is concerned, but doesn't exactly make for a bang-zip-bam action flick.The badguys don't seem to be able to decide whether they are following the goodguys or trying to kill them. The worst aspect of the film is how the badguys consistently fail to do this.However, to be fair, the film held my interest and had a few interesting ideas. The acting was good and the setting was very REAL. I mean, to make up for the fact that there weren't any stuntman flying around on wires, there was a sense that yes, a scandal might actually play out this way in real life. Except that the goodguys would die on Day One.Who should see this film:-- action / thriller buffs, but only on a rainy day when you've nothing better to do-- law school students, but see "The Paper Chase" firstI'll give The Pelican Brief a so-so 6 out of 10.
Star-powered escapist fare
posted on 01 May 2008I have seen other movies made from John Grisham novels, The Client (1994 ) and The Firm (1993). I would say this is on a par with those movies, and is typical of the mass market "thriller" genre. For me it's like watching TV, or an airline movie: the treatment is predictable, the plot includes a lot of unlikely action morphed out by various CIA, FBI, and other serious types according to the general expectation of the audience on a simplistic level, with some creativity but certainly nothing original. This is a movie for a tired CEO to fall asleep to. Yet it stars Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington with an interesting cast that includes the very talented Sam Shepherd. Alan J. Pakula, who directed and penned the script from Grisham's novel, has a number of important movies to his directorial credit including All the President's Men (1976) and Sophie's Choice (1982), and some as a producer, most notably the celebrated To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). So what happened here?Just the usual gravitation toward the mean. If you make a movie aimed at a mass audience, what's the point of doing anything they wouldn't appreciate anyway? Roberts and Washington are here for their star power, not because of their considerable acting talent. Yet, perhaps inspired by one another, they both give strong performances that carry the movie and make this definitely worth watching.Julia Roberts plays a Tulane law student who gets an idea about who assassinated two Supreme Court justices and why, and she writes a brief about it, the "Pelican Brief." We see her deep in the stacks at the library doing research, sporting several hair-dos at a little table under various lighting changes, so that we know its daytime and then night, etc., a clear device about as original as the pages flying off a calender. Tulane law professor Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepherd) is her mentor and bed mate. She's twenty-four and he's about forty, but a girl can learn a lot from such a man and he's warm and loving. Nonetheless we are scratching our head about this match up, especially when he begins drinking heavily (one of the justices was his mentor), and we know now for sure he's not in love. Well, the guy that gets Julia Roberts sure as heck can't be wishy washy about his love for her, we know that.We are also scratching our head because Denzel Washington, the ace of spades of leading men, an actor of power and accomplishment, is usually found in more serious venues, a guy who's played Steve Biko, apartheid victim and martyr in Cry Freedom (1987) and Malcolm X in Malcolm X (1992). So what's he doing in this mid-brow flick? He plays a beltway reporter, right out of the annals of the Bernstein and Woodward legend, but there is little real acting for him to do. So why is he here? It's to play opposite Julia Roberts of course! So what we have here is a very expensive "entertainment" starring two real actors. (I wonder how much money it made considering what they had to pay Grisham, Roberts and Washington.) Surely the subplot has to be romantic.
How IS Hollywood going to play the racially mixed duo? Inquiring minds want to know. (Hint: with great subtlety.)Julia is running, since the bad guys are after her. Notice that the plot conveniently gets rid of the "too old for her" guy. Try not to notice the other contrivances, the mysterious guy in the background who appears at exactly the last moment, for example. Just as one of the bad guys is about to blow our Julia away, he somehow blows the hit man away--by the way, getting blood on our girl. (It's enough to mention one plot contrivance per review, unless it's unusually bad, but there are others.) Well, Julia's getting the picture and it's pretty scary. She's on the phone as she's running from hotel to hotel, spending cash instead of using traceable credit cards. She can't trust anybody. Even the president of the United States is suspect, played incidentally with a kind of glee by Robert Culp as though impersonating Ronnie Reagan halfway into his dementia. Strange thing, Julia actually thinks you are supposed to really ACT in a thriller! Denzel knows better, managing a kind of controlled emotion throughout, saying as little as possible, using his eyes and making a lot out of silence, which is something an accomplished actor does when the script doesn't give him sparkling lines. Julia really does look scared, her face rubbery with a mean crease down the middle of her forehead. Watching just her, one could mistake this for an artsy-smartsy "serious" flick. Not to worry. There are some nice explosions and plenty of chases and all sorts of shadowy red herrings lurking about.Bottom line: If this is your genre, and you've just got to get away from that pile of papers you brought home to work on, go for it. This is standard issue escapist fare, true, but the stars really do shine.
Watch It Once
posted on 16 Aug 2009To give a movie a five-star rating, for me it has to be one that I would want to watch several times. This one does not fit that bill (hence the four-star rating). However, I do recommend seeing it because it is a very good one-viewing movie. Julia Roberts does a good job (although I do not like when she becomes like Meryl Streep). Denzel Washington does a superb job as a top-notch reporter (think "Deep Throat" from Watergate). The unseen villain is the kind of fear that many scary movies fail to deliver -- this one provides the suspense without giving in to flashy gimmicks.