
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993                   TAG: 9312180090
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

'PELICAN BRIEF' SET TO BE A HIT

"The Pelican Brief" is remarkably similar to this year's other adaptation of a John Grisham legal thriller. Like "The Firm," it's long, involving, slow in stretches; and while the film is generally faithful to its source, the ending has been changed and strengthened.

The significant difference here is the casting of a black man and a white woman in roles that are normally involved in a romantic relationship. It generates some unusual tension in the second half of the film.

The story begins with the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices in Washington, D.C. In New Orleans, law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) wonders what connections existed between the two dead men. Who might stand to gain without them on the bench? Her research through court records and computer files leads her to write a speculative paper about a possible conspiracy.

After her teacher and lover, Callahan (Sam Shepard), brings this "pelican brief" to the attention of a friend (John Heard) highly placed in the FBI, Darby finds herself in considerable jeopardy. It wouldn't be fair to reveal any of the details, but the key players are a dim-witted president (Robert Culp) up for re-election, his ruthless chief of staff (Tony Goldwyn) and Washington Herald investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington).

Grantham is working on the murders through leads of his own when Darby, being chased by all sorts of nasty bad guys, calls on him for help. The action shifts quickly between New Orleans and Washington. That fast pace necessitates some gaps and leaps of faith in the plot, but nothing that's too jarring for audiences to accept.

All in all, writer-director Alan J. Pakula manages to compress Grisham's long novel without damaging it. The changes he makes in the conclusion are all to the good. If the prolonged chases in the body of the film don't equal those in "The Fugitive," they're still energetic, and the film has a fair sense of place.

But the real key to this kind of escapism is the protagonists, and these could hardly be better. Darby and Grantham are attractive, likeable characters. Roberts and Washington have the indefinable "star quality" to make them compelling, with or without the conventional romance. At a few key moments, the action surrounding them is more confusing than it ought to be, but in the end all the loose ends are taken care of.

If the movie-going public's appetite for large-scale chase movies hasn't been satisfied by the bumper crop of summer releases, "The Pelican Brief" will be a winter hit.

\ The Pelican Brief: ***

A Warner Bros. release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall. 141 min. Rated PG-13 for violence, strong language.

by CNB