The Pelican Brief (1993)

NEUTRAL

In-Theaters

66%

PG-13

1993, Mystery & thriller, 2h 21m

RT Critics’ Score: 53% (UNBIASED)
RT Audience Score: 61%
Awards & Nominations: 1 win & 2 nominations

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Critics Consensus

Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington are a compelling team in the overlong Pelican Brief, a pulpy thriller that doesn’t quite justify the intellectual remove of Alan J. Pakula’s direction

Audience Consensus

The Pelican Brief is a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat, but only until the climax. After that, it’s like the movie just gave up and decided to take a nap. It’s a shame because the unseen menace and the pulpy material could have been so much fun. But hey, at least Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts look great while reciting perfunctory lines. Overall, it’s a clever device to take your mind off your problems for 141 minutes, but don’t expect a mind-blowing ending.

Storyline

Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men and who is also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her that states who probably wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the president’s men who read it is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared. So he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys, she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend’s friend at the FBI. He agrees to come meet her but before he does, someone shoots him and takes his place. At the meeting, he was about to kill her when someone shoots him. She then decides to turn to Gray Grantham, an investigative reporter, who was contacted by someone who says he has info on the killings but backed out at the last minute. He then meets her and tells her what her brief is, and basically, the man she suspects is a good friend of the president, and is trying to manipulate the outcome of a trial that is now before the Supreme Court. Grantham tells her that her brief can harm the president and although all they have are theories, he asks her to help him, but she wants to leave the country. Then Grantham’s editor tells him that they have nothing, that he should drop cause the man she implicated is extremely powerful. Grantham is about to drop it when she says that she will help him. But can they stay alive?

Production Company(ies)
Paramount Pictures, Penthouse Video Long Road Productions,

Distributor
NA

Release Type
Theatrical

Filming Location(s)
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

MPAA / Certificate
Rated PG-13 for momentary language and some violence

Year of Release
1993

Technical Specs

Color:

Color
Sound mix:

Dolby Digital
Aspect ratio:

2.35 : 1
Runtime:

NA
Language(s):

English
Country of origin:

United States
Release date:

Release Date (Theaters): Dec 17, 1993 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 15, 2000

Genre(s)
Mystery & thriller

Keyword(s)
starring Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James B Sikking, directed by Alan J Pakula, written by Alan J Pakula, mystery, thriller, box office performance, budget, reviewed by David Ansen, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Brian Lowry, Derek Adams, Janet Maslin, Roger Ebert, Quentin Crisp, Nick Rogers, Malcolm Johnson, Quentin Curtis, Dennis Schwartz, PG-13, conspiracy, legal brief, Supreme Court justices, killers, New Orleans, journalist, government conspiracy, Alan J Pakula, Pieter Jan Brugge, English, 1993, Surround, Stereo

Box Office Details

Worldwide gross: $195,268,056
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $405,621,582
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 379
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 44,233,542

US/Canada gross: $100,768,056
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $209,320,967
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 325
US/Canada opening weekend: $16,864,404
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $35,031,671
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 372

Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $45,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $93,476,483
Production budget ranking: 441
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $50,337,086
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $261,808,012
ROI to date (est.): 182%
ROI ranking: 675

Cast & Crew

Julia Roberts

Denzel Washington

Sam Shepard

John Heard

Tony Goldwyn

Darby Shaw

Gray Grantham

Thomas Callahan

Gavin Vereek

Fletcher Coal

Julia Roberts – Darby Shaw
Denzel Washington – Gray Grantham
Sam Shepard – Thomas Callahan
John Heard – Gavin Vereek
Tony Goldwyn – Fletcher Coal
James B. Sikking – FBI Director Denton Voyles
Alan J. Pakula – Director/Producer/Writer
Pieter Jan Brugge – Producer

Alan J. Pakula

Pieter Jan Brugge

Director

Writer

Producer

Director(s)
Alan J. Pakula

Writer(s)
Alan J. Pakula

Producer(s)
Alan J. Pakula, Pieter Jan Brugge

Film Festivals

Awards & Nominations
1 win & 2 nominations

Academy Awards

Top Reviews

David Ansen

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Brian Lowry

Derek Adams

Janet Maslin

Newsweek

Chicago Reader

Variety

Time Out

New York Times

THE PELICAN BRIEF
All Critics (54) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (25)
Pakula’s always had a cool style, tending toward solemnity, but let’s face it, All the President’s Men this movie is not. You wish he’d have a little more fun with the pulpy material.

May 3, 2018

David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
It’s too bad that Pakula allows this 1993 movie to dawdle after its climax, but prior to that he’s adept at suggesting unseen menace and keeping things in motion.

March 30, 2009

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
Pakula has improved on Grisham’s book by excising much of the detritus, crafting a taut, intelligent thriller that succeeds on almost every level.

November 5, 2008

Brian Lowry
Variety
TOP CRITIC
An old hand at this sort of thing, Pakula goes through the motions, but not much more.

February 9, 2006

Derek Adams
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
As the film piles on shovelfuls of further exposition, Mr. Washington and Ms. Roberts are left to look terrific and recite perfunctory lines.

May 20, 2003 | Rating: 2.5/5

Janet Maslin
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
A clever device to take your mind off your problems for 141 minutes.

January 1, 2000 | Rating: 3/4

Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
TOP CRITIC
The movie has a foolish ending, but it is worth seeing.

May 26, 2022

Quentin Crisp
Christopher Street
Not on par with Alan J. Pakula’s preeminent paranoid cinema. But depicting a POTUS at odds with his FBI director and creating obstruction of justice concerns aligns it with Pakula’s other preternaturally predictive potboilers.

June 24, 2019 | Rating: 3/4

Nick Rogers
Midwest Film Journal
Both Roberts, with her intense fragility, and Washington, with his thoughtful heroism, prove invaluable in pulling us into the heart of the film.

May 3, 2018

Malcolm Johnson
Hartford Courant
It all sounds thrilling enough. So why is it so dull? Chiefly because of a central flaw in Grisham’s writing, which Hollywood is unable to smooth out — its grinding pedantry.

December 12, 2017

Quentin Curtis
Independent on Sunday
A juicy conspiracy theory thriller.

March 7, 2017 | Rating: B-

Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
A routine thriller, curiosuly disappointing from Alan Pakula that even stars like Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts can’t rescue

June 18, 2011 | Rating: C

Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com…

Plot
Two Supreme Court Justices have been killed. Now a college professor, who clerked for one of the two men and who is also having an affair with one of his students, is given a brief by her that states who probably wanted to see these two men dead. He then gives it to one of his friends, who works for the FBI. When the FBI director reads it, he is fascinated by it. One of the president’s men who read it is afraid that if it ever got out, the president could be smeared. So he advises the president to tell the director to drop it, which he does. But later the professor and the girl were out and he was drunk and when he refused to give her the keys, she stepped out of the car. When he started it, it blew up. She then discovers that her place has been burglarized and what was taken were her computer and her disks. Obviously, her brief has someone agitated. She then turns to her boyfriend’s friend at the FBI. He agrees to come meet her but before he does, someone shoots him and takes his place. At the meeting, he was about to kill her when someone shoots him. She then decides to turn to Gray Grantham, an investigative reporter, who was contacted by someone who says he has info on the killings but backed out at the last minute. He then meets her and tells her what her brief is, and basically, the man she suspects is a good friend of the president, and is trying to manipulate the outcome of a trial that is now before the Supreme Court. Grantham tells her that her brief can harm the president and although all they have are theories, he asks her to help him, but she wants to leave the country. Then Grantham’s editor tells him that they have nothing, that he should drop cause the man she implicated is extremely powerful. Grantham is about to drop it when she says that she will help him. But can they stay alive?

Trivia