The Pelican Brief

Julia Roberts is back, and everyone’s out to get her. That’s what you get when you make your return to the screen in The Pelican Brief, a paranoia thriller based on the novel by attorney-cum-author John Grisham. After all, if the movie’s villains are willing and able to kill two Supreme Court justices, then it’s a sure bet that they’ll have no qualms about bagging Hollywood’s most elusive star. But don’t worry, the mysterious assasins of The Pelican Brief seem to turn myopic when she’s around.

Their vision is fine, however, when it comes to the rest of the cast (including the aforementioned justices, whom the killers bump off in one night in enough time to catch the red-eye back to France). The President (Robert Culp) is worried. His chief of staff (Tony Goldwyn) is conniving. The FBI director (James B. Sikking) is vaguely incompetent, and nobody knows what the CIA is up to. In other words, standard politics.

No one can make sense out of the murders, except for a bright law student (guess who) in New Orleans. Roberts turns the double-hitter into a research project, and within a week she stumbles into a conspiracy so evil that even Oliver Stone didn’t know about it. Unfortunately, she gives the research paper to her professor/lover (Sam Shepard), who then hands it to a dubious FBI friend (John Heard). Before you can say Warren Commission, people around Roberts began having nasty little accidents.

Back inside the Beltway, Denzel Washington is also pursuing the case. He’s a hard-working, dedicated, serious investigative reporter whose main source of information is a White House butler. Which explain why he spends a lot of his time on TV talk shows.

Sooner or later, you know that Roberts and Washington are going to pool their resources. Likewise, you know that a John Dean-type is going to begin spilling his guts. If this all sounds familiar, it should. The Pelican Brief was written and directed by Alan J. Pakula, of All the President’s Men fame. The only thing missing is Richard Nixon.

The Pelican Brief is Pakula’s return to the kind of political thrillers he did so well in the ‘70s. It’s neither as intense, nor as exciting, as his earlier movies, but it does have its chilling moments. Unfortunately, as a whole, this movie is more half-baked than frenzied, and its plot is as clear as mud.

In case you’re interested, this is the fourth installment of what’s critically known as Pakula’s “Paranoia Trilogy.” Okay, so who’s counting?