THE PELICAN BRIEF

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, thematic elements

Rated:

There's just something about thrillers that engage audiences. We like the tension, the explosions, the shootings, the danger... finding out who's who and who's not in a high-stakes game of entrapment. Whether or not this is healthy or ethical, Grisham's novels have become some of the highest-selling volumes in history. Among them is The Pelican Brief, a film stocked with big names and even bigger surprises.

Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) is a first year law student involved in a romantic relationship with her college professor. Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) is a reporter for the Washington Herald. The two have nothing in common, but are about to become partners in a high-profile case involving homicide, blackmail, and money laundering in high places. When an aging judge with a heart condition is shot to death in his hospital room, Darby thinks it strange. But when another politician is strangled in a movie theater, she knows something political is afoot. The two men seem unconnected except through one or two angles of speech. There seems no reason for either to be murdered... the judge was on his deathbed anyway, and the other man in no great position of power. Yet there must be a connection between them!

Darby begins to investigate and turns up shocking evidence that would incriminate men in high places... very high places. The only problem is, when the word leaks out that Darby's got them fingerprinted for the crime, these notorious bad boys aren't going to go down without a fight. When her boyfriend is killed with a car bomb intended for her, Darby goes into hiding. Her only hope lies in Gray, a reporter known for his prowess and watertight investigations. But this time the danger may be too eminent, and involve them both in a scandal so enveloping it could turn deadly at any turn. As a thriller, Pelican Brief delivers... a chilling meeting in a crowd... a sudden explosion... a tension-pounding chase in a car garage.

Unfortunately, what it doesn't deliver is an air-tight case. The film is so determined to keep us hanging that it never completely gives us all the facts; we find ourselves half lost during the first hour, and only beginning to understand by the second. Two viewings are a must, if you go for it at all. Content is pretty heavy, and definitely not family-gendered. Suspense keeps us on edge as several men are killed; blood often spatters, although the actual impact is never seen. Several violent explosions and bloody bullet holes. In a lengthy scene, a man sits in a gay porn theater with heavy breathing coming from the screen. He is then strangled. Vague jokes on "queers" are mentioned. Darby is involved with her professor sexually. It's implied that he's had a number of much younger girlfriends over the course of his career. He puts his hands up under her shirt in one kissing scene. On the up side, the acting is stellar, particularly on the part of Denzel Washington. Too bad he didn't have more to work with.

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