Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

I have a weakness for legal thriller novels and it extends to movies of that ilk.  One of my favorites is "The Pelican Brief" with Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts, both of them young and gorgeous.  John Grisham's novels are made for the screen to begin with, and I love "The Rainmaker", "The Firm", "The Client" and others.  Each has an important political point to make, and none of those points have dimmed with age.  There are still insurance companies denying their policies unfairly, law firms in bed with the mafia or drug cartels, and children being manhandled in court and single mothers struggling to protect their families from the agencies sworn to protect them.

In "Pelican", two Supreme Court Justices are assassinated, and a young Tulane law student (Roberts) comes up with a theory on why.  Her professor (Sam Shepherd), with whom she is sleeping (another political point), is killed after he passes the brief on to a friend in the FBI.  She realizes she was meant to die as well in the car explosion, and goes on the run.  She enlists the help of a famous Washington DC journalist, played by Washington, and together they struggle to stay alive while they get enough evidence to go public with the story.  But forces in the CIA, FBI and the White House are clashing and playing against each other as well. 

The whole cast is great, especially Robert Culp as the President, Tony Goldwyn as his chief of staff, John Heard as the FBI friend and Stanley Tucci as the assassin.  Set in New Orleans and NYC and DC, the plot is as relevant today environmentally as back then.  It could be today's headlines.  I'm not too fond of Roberts, but here she is perfectly cast and carries the film easily.  Washington is a surprising casting choice, but it works.  John Lithglow as his editor gives some lightness and humor to the movie.  Interestingly, in the book Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham sleep together, but I guess it was too loaded with a white student and a black journalist.  I wonder if they would include it these days?  The chemistry between them is strong. 

I admit to seeing this film many times, and I admire it more each time.  Like "All the President's Men" it is passionate, scary, and about real power and how it plays out.  And because "All the President's Men" is a true story, "Pelican"'s fiction is close enough to truth to wake us up and make us take notice.  The movie is a guilty pleasure with brains.