Wuchak RELEASED IN 1993 and directed by Alan J. Pakula from John Grisham's novel, "The Pelican Brief" is a political drama/thriller about a law student (Julia Roberts) who researches the murders of two supreme court justices and shares her theory with her college professor (Sam Shepard) who, in turn, gives it to an FBI friend on a lark. The brief hits a nerve because people start dying one-by-one. Denzel Washington plays a DC reporter who teams-up with the student while Robert Culp appears as the president. While I prefer "The Firm" (1993), which was also written by Grisham, this one is along the same lines, albeit with a totally different story (naturally). "Pelican" has more action, but the plot/characters aren't quite as interesting IMHO. Still, if you liked one, you'll probably appreciate the other. THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours, 21 minutes and was shot in New Orleans and Washington DC/Maryland. ADDITIONAL CAST: John Heard plays an FBI agent, Stanley Tucci a hitman and John Lithgow an editor.GRADE: B/B-

sol- Intrigued by the coincidental assassination of two supreme court justices, a law student comes up with a conspiracy theory that lands her in trouble when it turns out that her hypothesis is correct in this legal thriller written and directed by Alan J. Pakula from a novel by John Grisham. The skilled craftsman behind 'The Parallax View' and 'All the President's Men', Pakula knows how to helm a good paranoia thriller and there are several superb sequences here that showcase his craft. The best of these has an incognito hired assassin walking hand-in-hand with the film's oblivious heroine; Pakula drums up much tension by dragging out the assassin slowing reaching for a gun he has hidden on his person. 'The Pelican Brief' is not, however, a paranoia thriller in the strictest sense of the term. There is no real mystery element at all (despite the 'Mystery' genre listing on IMDb). It is always clear who the bad guys are and it is also always obvious that the protagonist's life really is in danger. In short, the film lacks the ambiguity and uncertainty that renders something like fellow 1993 Grisham adaptation 'The Firm' so dynamic. The film misses the mark with an overly sentimental ending too, but the acting is at least solid from all concerned. Leads Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington have great chemistry together without ever the suggestion of romantic sparks, and John Lithgow, Told Goldwyn and Stanley Tucci are all in fine form. The film is invariably exciting at times too. It is just not all that one might expect from a project with Pakula and Grisham's names both attached.

2karl- well here a a conspiracy thriller from the director presumed innocent and all the presidents men so you can see where the director is going with his story around white house stuff so with a great a list cast Julia Roberts ... Darby Shaw Denzel Washington ... Gray Grantham Sam Shepard ... Thomas Callahan John Heard ... Gavin Vereek 5Tony Goldwyn ... Fletcher Coal James Sikking ... FBI Director Denton Voyles William Atherton ... Bob Gminski Robert Culp ... President Stanley Tucci ... Khamel Hume Cronyn ... Justice Rosenberg John Lithgow ... Smith Keen so with all these characters a young Julia Roberts character derby shaw is a student who likes to study conspiracies come across a problem that might bring down the president as she is having an affair with the her professor who is an aid to one of the 2 judges killed so the brief he has on this conspiracy murder smells a idea that someone high has done this so when the F B I director gets wind of this through a mutual friend he he gives it to a body guard who is close to the presidents menpresident could be smeared. So, he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does.and later on derby professor is out on a date and there messing around they go back to the car he refuse to let her drive she gets out and he blows up the FBI Are on her case but she gets away so as the action hot upher place is has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone really annoyed the president friend at the FBI, he agrees to come meet her but before he does someone shoots him and takes his place but derby is keeping ahead a goes to a journalist gray grantam who doesn't believe at first but when she brings him eviedence he goes public but his editor is suspicious about what going great thriller of cat and mouse this is my 76 review gave this 7 out of 10 its 2hrs 15mins a great looking movie can both of them live to tell the world as they are moving targets

slightlymad22 I'm not much of a fan of either Julia Roberts or Denzel Washington. With Washington, his race always comes in to every movie he stars in, Usually with him being on the end of some form of racial abuse. As for Roberts, she just bores me. Plot in A Paragraph: Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) a law student writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why two Supreme Court justices were assassinated and under whose orders, and shows it to her law professor, and lover Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). He gives a copy to his friend Gavin Verheek (John Heard) at the FBI. Before long Callaghan is dead and she reaches out to Verheek and Washington Herald reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) for help.Amazingly John Grisham wrote the part of Darby Shaw with Julia Roberts in mind. Roberts read the book once it was finished and agreed to the role without even seeing a script. I find this amazing as she is woefully miscast as a law student, as she struggles with the dialogue, and lacks any conviction as a believable law student.Made at the height of Roberts popularity and Washington was hot coming off the back of his Oscar nomination for "Malcolm X" it was a great pairing!! I think if these two made the stinker "I Love Trouble" (That Roberts followed this up with) that year it still would have been a hit!! Despite enjoying it, and some great performances, I will probably never watch this againMy race bug bearer of watching Washington came up 3 times during this movies run time! As for Roberts she continues to be a popular actress, however I lost interest in her and her movies a long time ago, I have only seen five of her movies since 2000.