The Pelican Brief (1993)
Two pro-choice Supreme Court justices are assassinated by an evil corporation in order to sabotage a pending environmental lawsuit. The masterminds of this conspiracy outsmarted every law enforcement agency and reporter in the country, but Tulane law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) uncovers the connection via a magical concoction of statistical analysis and intuition.
Julia Roberts is great in tragic weepers and romantic comedies, but straight-forward thrillers are not her strong suit and she’s not believable.
Denzel Washington is reporter Gray Grantham, one of the few people who believes Darby. Washington gives it his best effort, but the story is so bad and Roberts so out of her element, his performance suffers.
Stanley Tucci is the best thing about the movie as the assassin Khamel, and John Lithgow does yeoman’s work as Smith Keen, the over-cautious newsroom editor who, despite the obvious ongoing threats to the lives of his reporter and source, demands proof before they can print the story because, apparently, the Washington Herald can’t print a story detailing their numerous escapes from a violent death without proof linking the murders to the corporation.
Alan Paluka directed Klute (1971) and All the President’s Men (1976). Those are atmospheric and effective political thrillers, but this is like a really bad season of 24, only less believable.
Watching this movie, you realize how much author John Grisham has in common with Dan Brown. Brown would have us believe religion is a giant festering conspiracy; Grisham was saying the same thing about the law a decade earlier.
The Great Beauty (2013)
As a young man, Jep Gambardella wrote a well received novel which made him famous and wealthy. Now, he writes cultural columns and throws elaborate parties.
On his 65th birthday, he walks through Rome reflecting on his life. The first half of the movie, as he meanders through the city, is a Felliniesque version of My Dinner with Andre (1981). But when Jep attends a dinner with an elderly nun, it transforms into a sublime meditation on the purpose of life.
The nun clings to a worldview which looks beyond her personal desires to a much bigger truth. In contrast, her cadre of followers are a pathetic bunch who seek to profit off her piety.
Jep is moved by the encounter, realizing it’s possible to break through the tyranny of self-interest. The odds aren’t good. Of the more than twenty people at dinner with the nun, Jep is the only one who understands what she’s saying, but as long as there is at least one person who can see the great beauty of the world, all is not lost.