Classic Movie Review: 'The Pelican Brief'

The Pelican Brief (1993)

Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Written by Alan J. Pakula

Starring Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Hume Cronyn

Release Date December 17th, 1993

Published December 27th, 2023

The Pelican Brief stars Julia Roberts as Tulane Law School student, Darby Shaw. Darby is your average 23 year old who happens to be sleeping with her law professor, played by Sam Shepherd. After a pair of Supreme Court Justices, Rosenberg and Jensen, are assassinated, Darby develops a theory as to why these to seemingly opposing judges were killed. It turns out, the two Justices, had one thing in common, the environment. Each voted regularly against major corporations that risked polluting the environment or those that did pollute the environment and received significant penalties for doing so.

Taking out Rosenberg and Jensen reshapes the court in someone's favor and that someone is likely the person who arranged two assassinations of Supreme Court Justices within hours of each other. For some reason, only a 23 year old law student who is sleeping with her professor, is capable of figuring out this conspiracy. So, Darby writes a legal brief and gives it to her professor boyfriend. The boyfriend passes it to his pal at the FBI, played by John Heard. From there, what comes to be known as The Pelican Brief, reaches the desk of the President's Chief of Staff, played by Tony Goldwyn, who takes it to the President, Robert Culp, and a conspiracy unfolds to kill Darby and bury the brief.

On a second track of story, Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham, played by Denzel Washington, is following his own theory on the assassinations. Gray has connected with a Washington lawyer who claims to have seen a memo implicating his bosses at a big time law firm in the deaths of Rosenberg and Jensen. The lawyer, calling himself Garcia, reaches out to Grantham for help but ultimately backs out of a meeting with the reporter out of fear for his life. In the midst of trying to follow the bread crumbs left by Garcia, Gray meets Darby and the two begin working together to solve this conspiracy while running for their lives from ruthless assassins.

There is something ever so slightly off throughout The Pelican Brief. While the film is perfectly watchable, it feels weightless for a movie about the assassination of TWO Supreme Court justices and a college professor. Oops, spoiler alert. There's actually an even bigger body count than that but I don't want to give everything away regarding this 30 year old blockbuster. The Pelican Brief never feels like anything more than a trashy beach read, perhaps because that is exactly what the movie was based upon. Legendary author John Grisham may have had the pretense of a law professor, but his books were straight melodrama inflated with legal jargon.

That said, I expected a little something more from writer-director Alan J. Pakula. After all, he's the director behind two iconic 70s movies, one of which is the gold standard of political thrillers, All the President's Men, and the other is the remarkable mystery, Klute. Pakula was more than capable of making throwaway blockbuster style movies, even in his heyday, but, paired with the two most radiant stars of the day and a book that had a solid base for an exploration of corruption and politics, I got it in my head that The Pelican Brief should be more than it is. That's on me. The Pelican Brief, away from my expectations and desires, is fine. It's breezy, it moves quickly, and it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Is it weird to anyone else how quickly and thoroughly John Grisham's cultural footprint disappeared? In the 90s, he was everywhere. His books were inescapable, his style was the most influential in the publishing business outside of Stephen King or Jackie Collins. Ask young people today about Grisham however and your likely to receive a quizzical look, as if hearing the name of a complete stranger. Don't get me wrong, I am aware that Grisham still has a place in the literary world, but on a cultural level, that intangible household name quality, Grisham has receded to the point where if people recognize him, he's a relic of the 1990s, a signifier of that decade. That's weird to me, I was there when Grisham was everywhere.

You know what is weird about The Pelican Brief? The brother-sister chemistry of Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts. While fans expected them to have a romance, the stars fostered an almost anti-chemistry on screen. It was as if they had zero interest in one another romantically. This is by design for the script as Darby is just days from having watched her Professor boyfriend die horribly. It's sensible that she doesn't look to throw down with the first man she meets, even as that first man is Denzel Washington at the height of his beauty. That said, this kind of traumatic backstory rarely stopped Hollywood movie stars from falling into bed together before. So why do Denzel and Julia have so little romantic spark?

Rumor has it that it was Denzel who killed the love scenes in the movie. Julia Roberts reportedly gave an interview claiming that Denzel didn't want to harm his black female fanbase by being seen kissing a white woman. This interview may or may not have occurred. This notion about Denzel and white women has persisted for years as a minor Hollywood urban legend. The reality is that the script didn't need a romance between Denzel and Julia. Director Alan J. Pakula made the call that the film was already overstuffed with chases and conspiracies. There was simply no time for romance. He also might have noticed that Denzel and Julia were just not putting out the vibe and dropped the scene.

The Pelican Brief, much like author John Grisham, made a big impact when it was released back in 1993 and then receded as years have passed. The film doesn't have much of a cultural imprint. Despite starring two beloved actors and being a blockbuster upon its release, The Pelican Brief has had little, if any staying power. The title, The Pelican Brief today is more likely to draw a curious stare rather than an excited recognition. What does that say about the quality of the movie? Not much, it's just notable to me. It's a like a different kind of Mandela Effect where something did really happen but people have almost completely forgotten it, even when you remind them of it.

The Pelican Brief is the subject of the newest episode of The I Hate Critics 1993 Podcast. On this show, myself, Gen-Z'er M.J, and Gen-X'er Amy, watch movies that came out 30 years earlier in chronological order. It's a fun show, we've had a great time talking about why some movies have a lasting cultural impact and how movies like The Pelican Brief have been lost to time. It's fascinating to consider through the movies how culture and film have changed in just three decades. You can listen to the I Hate Critics 1993 Podcast, on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast feed, wherever you listen to Podcasts.

Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.Blogspot.com. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at Seanatthemovies. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing on Vocal. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip. Thanks!