BESTSELLERS II - JOHN GRISHAM, STEPHEN KING: THE PELICAN BRIEF, THE DARK HALF, NEEDFUL THINGS
John Grisham was a lawyer and a Congressman from Mississippi before turning his hand to writing novels. While his first novel, "A Time to Kill," he considers his most personal, it wasn't until he published "The Firm" in 1991 that he became a cottage industry. Depending on who you talk to, Grisham's legal thrillers have either saved the publishing industry (he's sold millions of books) or ruined it (his detractors - and they are legion - decry his plots and characters as being one-dimensional). He certainly is the novel equivalent of junk food, but that's what I enjoy about them at their best - they're always a fun read. Sydney Pollack managed to make a fun movie from THE FIRM, but alas, Alan J. Pakula is not able to do so from THE PELICAN BRIEF, though it is watchable.
The story is essentially the same. Two Supreme Court Justices are assassinated on the same night, Rosenberg (Hume Cronyn) and Jensen (Ralph Cosham). On the surface, neither had anything in common - Rosenberg was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, while Jensen was conservative, Rosenberg was shot in his home, while Jensen was strangled at a gay porn theater. All Fletcher Coal (Tony Goldwyn), chief of staff of the President (Robert Culp), knows is that it's a good scandal for his boss to deal with. Meanwhile, Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts), a Tulane law student, becomes intrigued with the murder, and decides to look for the connection. She writes a brief about it, and though she's unsure about her conclusion, she passes it on to her lover and professor, Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). Callahan, who clerked for Rosenberg, then passes it on to his friend Gavin Verheek (John Heard), a lawyer for the FBI, and he in turn passes it up. Sometime later, Callahan is killed by a car bomb right in front of Darby, and she goes on the run. She contacts Gavin, and he tries to arrange a meeting, but he's killed by Khamel (Stanley Tucci), the hired killer who offed Rosenberg and Jensen. He in turn is killed while impersonating Gavin, and Darby doesn't know who to trust.
The only one she can turn to is Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), a D.C. reporter. He's been working the case on his own, from the angle of a lawyer who calls himself Garcia (Jake Weber) and acts as if he knows something about the murder, but won't say what. By now, both Darby and Gray realize the brief is true - it implicated a rich contributor to the President who might have had a controversial environmental case go to the Supreme Court that involved, of course, pelicans - and they try to prove their case before they get killed.
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