The Pelican Brief
With Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington
Reviewed by Arun Pradhan
It sounds like a good idea: rework the familiar Watergate plot, get some big names like Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, chuck in some suspense and action scenes for good measure, and we should have a hit.
The Pelican Brief does all this, and does it quite successfully. The plot itself is quite simple and distressingly realistic. It is based on a man who doesn't think twice about killing people and destroying the environment in his drive for more cash (he can be affectionately referred to as the "bad guy"). This man also has strong connections to the president of the United States.
In the tradition of All the President's men, the movie maintains its suspense by taking its time to reveal all of the facts and concentrating more on how the information is exposed. Washington and Roberts combine well as the investigative journalist and young law student on the trail of the truth through a storm of car bombs and bullets.
The story is perhaps naive in assuming that an establishment newspaper journalist would be allowed to go so far. In real life the owner of the paper would have had the same business interests, nasty links and probably even the same caddie at the golf club as the "bad guy", and the scandal, in all likelihood, would have been suppressed.
The other problem I had with the movie was that there were no bonking scenes. I don't normally demand that movies have an obligatory bonking scene, but the circumstances made its omission very noticeable. The novel on which the movie is based does have the two characters becoming lovers. The movie hints at something more than just friends; it shows a peck on the cheek and even a few intense hugs. But that's as far as it will go. Perhaps Hollywood just didn't want a love story to detract from the main plot. Or could it have something to do with Denzel Washington being black and Julia Roberts white?
Still, The Pelican Brief is worth seeing. With assassins, a tangled web of FBI and CIA spies and a president obsessed with trying to get his dog to roll over, it will not disappoint fans of political thrillers.