TWO SUPREME COURT JUSTICES HAVE BEEN ASSASSINATED. ONE LONE LAW STUDENT HAS STUMBLED UPON THE TRUTH. AN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTÂ WANTS HER STORY. EVERYBODY ELSE WANTS HER DEAD.
Law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) writes a brief on the murders of two Supreme Court justices and becomes the killers’ next target; investigative reporter Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) decides to help her. The second John Grisham adaptation of that year (The Firm was first) has ingredients that are reminiscent of the director’s The Parallax View (1974) and All the President’s Men (1976); it’s entertaining, but goes on too long and doesn’t carry much weight. Still, Pakula knows which buttons to push, Grisham’s story is exciting and the cast first-rate; it’s easy to get involved in Roberts’s escape from the killers.
1993-U.S. 141 min. Color. Widescreen. Written and directed by Alan J. Pakula. Novel: John Grisham. Cast: Julia Roberts (Darby Shaw), Denzel Washington (Gray Grantham), Sam Shepard (Thomas Callahan), John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, James B. Sikking… Robert Culp, Stanley Tucci, Hume Cronyn, John Lithgow, Cynthia Nixon.
