Movie Review: Cat People (1982)

Genre: Fantasy Erotic Horror  

Director: Paul Schrader  
Starring: Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, John Heard, Annette O'Toole, Ruby Dee, Ed Begley Jr.  

Running Time: 118 minutes  

Synopsis: In a prologue set in ancient times, tribals make human offerings to large black panthers. In the present, Irena Gallier (Nastassja Kinski) arrives in New Orleans to rejoin her brother Paul (Malcolm McDowell), many years after the siblings were separated upon their parents' death. When Paul mysteriously goes absent, Irena is attracted to the big cats at the zoo, where she meets curator Oliver (John Heard). Mauling deaths start to occur, and gradually Irena's worst fears are realized: she and Paul are descendants of people who turn to large cats and have to kill when sexually aroused.

What Works Well: A remake of Jacques Tourneur's 1942 low-budget original, the 1982 version enjoys glossy production values, a devotion to stylish visuals, and layers of mythology. Director Paul Schrader creates stunning dreamscape vistas in the prologue, and adds gore, nudity, and themes of incest and impossible love to the subsequent suspense underpinnings. An alluring Nastassja Kinski and a barely-contained Malcolm McDowell represent the two ends of innocence and decadence, and they are surrounded by a strong supporting cast and plenty of prowling cats. The New Orleans setting adds gothic aesthetics, and the brooding music score by Giorgio Moroder and David Bowie supplements the mood.

What Does Not Work As Well: The rules governing the lives of Irena and Paul are elusive enough to allow plenty of variations-on-a-theme, while some of the acidic transformations within the fantasy context are unexplained. A crime investigation sub-plot threatens to intrude on the narrative, but ultimately just gets in the way.

Key Quote:

Irena: I'm not like you.

Paul: Well, that's the lie that will kill your lover.

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Movie Review: The Trip To Bountiful (1985)

Genre: Road Trip Drama

Director: Peter Masterson

Starring: Geraldine Page, John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay, Richard Bradford
Running Time: 108 minutes

Synopsis: In Houston of the late 1940s, the elderly Mrs. Watts (Geraldine Page) is living in a cramped two-room apartment with her son Ludie (John Heard) and daughter-in-law Jessie May (Carlin Glynn). The two women barely get along, and Mrs. Watts longs to escape the apartment and visit her tiny hometown of Bountiful one last time. With Ludie reluctant to accompany her, Mrs. Watts takes the initiative and sets off on her own, embarking on a bus ride full of memories and anticipation.

What Works Well: Horton Foote adapts his own play for the screen, and director Peter Masterson delivers a small, intimate story of nostalgia with an eye for picturesque middle-of-nowhere bus stops. An acting showcase for Geraldine Page, this warm and lyrical road trip contrasts sweet memories of home as a refuge from present hard compromises and discomforts. Rebecca De Mornay (as a fellow traveler) and Richard Bradford (as a helpful Sheriff) make small appearances.

What Does Not Work As Well: The theatrical origins are obvious, the narrative is singularly lacking in surprises, and the pacing succumbs to repetitive reminiscing about the good old days. John Heard's Ludie gets one late moment to shine, but it arrives out of nowhere. 

Conclusion: A sweet but largely inconsequential ode to the past.



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Movie Review: The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)

Genre: Whimsical Dramedy

Director: Robert Redford

Starring: Chuck Vennera, Ruben Blades, Sonia Braga, John Heard, Christopher Walken, Melanie Griffith

Running Time: 117 minutes

Synopsis: In the tiny New Mexico community of Milagro, locals are resigned to the imminent arrival of a gentrification project financed by tycoon Ladd Devine (Richard Bradford). But farmer Joe Mondragon (Chick Vennera) takes a stand by diverting water to his long-dormant beanfield, the one remaining unsold plot. Activist Ruby (Sonia Braga) seizes on Joe's initiative to mobilize the community and recruits reluctant news publisher Charlie Bloom (John Heard) to the cause. Devine imports Sherriff Montana (Christopher Walken) as an intimidator, while local law officer Montoya (Ruben Blades) tries to keep the lid on bubbling tensions.

What Works Well: Gorgeous cinematography (Robbie Greenberg), playful music (Dave Grusin), and a quirky sense of humour underpin this backwater culture clash. The theme of the new threatening the old in the capitalistic pursuit of profit provides a sturdy narrative foundation, but director Robert Redford maintains a light touch exemplified by Carlos Riquelme as the eccentric old-timer Amarante. He lives somewhere between the past and the present in the constant company of his pig (and a ghost), winking at life's compounding absurdities.

What Does Not Work As Well: Several characters promise much but ultimately just add clutter, including appearances by Melanie Griffith (superfluous), Daniel Stern (lost), and Julie Carmen (unfortunately underused). The ending creates numerous gaps in a rush to rudimentary cheerleading.

Conclusion: The winds of change can blow in unpredictably gorgeous directions.



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Movie Review: Rambling Rose (1991)

Genre: Drama

Director: Martha Coolidge

Starring: Laura Dern, Robert Duvall, Diane Ladd, Lukas Haas, John Heard

Running Time: 112 minutes

Synopsis: During the Great Depression in rural Georgia, Rose (Laura Dern) is hired as the live-in housekeeper for Mr. and Mrs. Hillyer (Robert Duvall and Diane Ladd) and their three children, including 13-year-old Buddy (Lukas Haas). Rose is escaping a troubled background where she was forced in to prostitution. She falls in love with Mr. Hillyer, and in turn Buddy develops a crush on Rose. Mrs. Hillyer grows to admire the sexually spirited but good-at-heart Rose, and defends her through a series of misadventures.

What Works Well: The adaptation of Calder Willingham's book is enlivened by the quirks of the Hillyer family. Mrs. Hillyer is a slightly deaf early feminist studying for a Master's degree, Mr. Hillyer is stern but loving, and the kids are smarter and sassier than their age suggests. With Rose's thunderbolt sexuality a perfect catalyst, most of the family's actions and reactions are unconventional, allowing director Martha Coolidge sly access to humorous sparks amidst the undercurrents of lust and romance. Laura Dern (liberated but frazzled) and Diane Ladd (progressive but vulnerable) deliver standout performances.

What Does Not Work As Well: The structure is episodic and ultimately repetitive, the second half noticeably losing momentum with underdeveloped secondary characters rotating in and out of random shenanigans. The bookend structure featuring the grown-up Buddy (John Heard) adds nothing, and the final scene is painfully misguided.

Conclusion: This rose has both beauty and thorns.



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Movie Review: The Package (1989)

Genre: Cold War Thriller

Director: Andrew Davis

Starring: Gene Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, Joanna Cassidy, John Heard, Dennis Franz

Running Time: 108 minutes

Synopsis: In Berlin, the US and the USSR agree to sign a nuclear disarmament treaty, but secretly, generals on both sides want to torpedo the deal. US Army Sergeant Johnny Gallagher (Gene Hackman) tangles with the shadowy Colonel Whitacre (John Heard), and is then ordered to escort a prisoner (Tommy Lee Jones) from Germany to the United States. In Washington DC the prisoner escapes, and Johnny turns to his ex-wife and army colonel Eileen (Joanna Cassidy) for help. They uncover the threads of an assassination conspiracy planned for the treaty signing ceremony in Chicago, but Johnny and Eileen are soon being framed and hunted.

What Works Well: Released less than three months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, writer John Bishop's ambitiously complex plot enjoys good production values and multiple characters carrying the load of heavy borrowings from the John F. Kennedy assassination (including the conspiracy angles) and The Day Of The Jackal. The cast is rich in talent, with Gene Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, John Heard, and Dennis Franz (as a Chicago police commander) all in fine form. Director Andrew Davis maintains primary focus on plot tensions and keeps the action scenes relatively short and sharp.

What Does Not Work As Well: With a plot encompassing multiple bad guys from two countries spread out in several cities, the logic gaps are often startling, best exemplified by the early multiple murder of high-ranking US military men that passes without comment. Joanna Cassidy's role becomes increasingly redundant as the plot moves along, and the breathless racing-around scenes in the third act could have been trimmed in favour of heftier plot justifications.

Conclusion: The Package never threatens to ignite, but still delivers a solid-enough addition to the Cold War thriller subgenre.



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Movie Review: Home Alone (1990)

A family Christmas comedy, Home Alone strikes all the right tones in a tale of a kid forgotten behind at the most magical time of year.

In a Chicago suburb, the McCallister family prepares for a Christmas vacation trip to Paris. Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) is the smart but exasperating eight year old youngest son, generally overlooked by his parents Kate and Peter (Catherine O'Hara and John Heard) and tormented by his siblings. With the family chaotically extended by the presence of Kevin's ornery uncle and his brood, no one notices burglar Harry Lyme (Joe Pesci) disguised as a police officer scoping the soon-to-be-empty house.

In the travel day rush the family bundles off to the airport and then onto the plane with Kevin forgotten home alone. He has to fend for himself, keeping a wary eye on spooky neighbour Marly (Roberts Blossom), and gradually realizes Harry and his partner Marv (Daniel Stern) are intent on burglarizing the house. On the plane Kate awakens to her blunder, and once in Paris immediately starts the long trip back. But unscheduled travel arrangements during the Holidays will prove a challenge.

Writer and producer John Hughes turns his attention away from teenagers and towards the younger kids. Maintaining his sharp wit and ear to the ground, Hughes conjures up a Christmas classic in a story where be-careful-what-you-wish-for applies to both the kids and adults.

In the lead up to the Paris trip Kevin makes a nuisance of himself by just being a kid, but his unintended mess results in hot emotions and sharp words. Kate banishes him to the attic, out of sight and out of mind, and Kevin wishes his whole family would just disappear already. Both their wishes come true, as the next morning the family is free of Kevin's presence and he awakens to an empty house, sure he was responsible for everyone's disappearance.

With director Chris Columbus capably translating Hughes' vision to the screen, what follows is a journey of redemption for Kate, and she has to overcome every conceivable travel nightmare to make it back to her son as soon as possible. Her trip will include a travel leg in a U-Haul van with John Candy's legendary (sort of) polka band, Hughes elegantly tying Home Alone with 1987's Planes, Trains And Automobiles.

Meantime Kevin is growing up in a hurry, confronting fears including the boiler in the basement and the mysterious neighbour-with-the-shovel. But worse is to come, the bumbling burglar duo of Harry and Marv absolutely intent on hitting the prized McCallister house (Hughes never quite explains how this family came to live in a luxurious mansion). Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are admirably dedicated to the doofus antagonists roles, and add immeasurably to the film's madcap physical humour.

Home Alone reaches a quite hilarious climax with Kevin concocting a defence of the house to thwart and humiliate the robbers at every turn, in the hope help will arrive in a true Christmas miracle. Here Hughes even manages a nod to the intervention by the misunderstood next-door presence from To Kill A Mockingbird territory.

With Columbus cajoling a superlative and ridiculously appealing performance out of young Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone ticks along in perfect harmony with the spirit of personal growth through family appreciation, laughing all the way.

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Movie Review: Big (1988)

A fantasy comedy and romance, Big is a delightful story of a young teenager suddenly trapped into the body of an adult. With an impeccable Tom Hanks performance and a clever jaunt into the world of grownup business and romance through the eyes of an adolescent, Big is a flawless film.

In suburban New Jersey, Josh Baskin (David Moscow) is 13 years old and going through typical awkward early teen transitions along with his best friend and next-door-neighbour Billy (Jared Rushton). After a humiliating fairground experience, Josh stumbles onto a Zoltar Speaks fortune-telling arcade machine, and wishes to be big. His wish is granted. The next day Josh (Tom Hanks) wakes up the size of a 30 year old man. His family is utterly spooked and with the carnival having moved on, Josh flees to New York City and with Billy's help starts the search for another Zoltar to undo the damage.

To survive in the big city Josh lands a data entry job at the MacMillan Toy Company. His childlike outlook on the world of toys quickly comes to the attention of Mr. MacMillan himself (Robert Loggia), who promotes him to a Vice President much to the chagrin of the oily Paul Davenport (John Heard), a ruthlessly careerist fellow VP. But Paul's girlfriend and fellow MacMillan executive Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth Perkins) takes a liking to the innocent Josh, and they start a friendship. Josh gradually adapts to the world of adulthood, but Billy will not give up on finding a Zoltar machine.

Directed by Penny Marshall, Big is a heart warming tale about transitions. Mixing perfect doses of comedy with romance and commentary about what it means to be a grown-up, the film maintains a light touch and never loses its sense of wonder and innocence. The film is a journey into the adult world through the lens of a 13 year old, and with plenty of humour Marshall takes Josh on a tour of seedy hotels, corporate boardrooms, and the mysterious jungle of tangled romantic relationships in the workplace.

Despite the many laughs, Big works its way gradually to ask fundamental questions about growing up. When is soon too soon, is the enticing responsibility of adulthood worth sacrificing a childhood, and what happens to the sense of fun and wonderment when kids grow up. Josh is exposed to everything from the horrid conditions of a flop house to cutthroat office politics and the enchantment of romance, finding the adult world a complicated yet intriguing place to navigate.

And while this is the story of Josh dealing with a sudden transformation into a strange world, the film also focuses on his role as an unintended catalyst. Just by being himself, Josh exposes Paul's connivance, reawakens Susan's passion, and allows Mr. MacMillan to reconnect with the essence of his business. The multiple character threads create a richly textured film within a deceivingly simple framework.

Marshall conjures up a couple of magical scenes as exclamation marks to Josh's adventures. At a large toy store, Josh and Mr. MacMillan play on a floor-mounted foot-operated electronic keyboard to the delight of other customers. Later, Josh convinces Susan to let loose on his in-house trampoline. Both sequences capture the simple joy of living, and accentuate the need to stay in touch with the child within, and the benefits of occasionally shaking off the crustiness that forms with age.

Tom Hanks delivers a star-making performance. He never loses the essence of Josh as a 13 year old boy grappling with the adult world, and his mannerisms, expressions and wide-eyed purity are never far from the surface. Elizabeth Perkins plays a big part in the film's success, with Susan undergoing the biggest awakening due to Josh's inadvertent influence. Perkins is convincing both as a self-obsessed corporate shark, a love interest, and finally a woman who begins to understand what is important in life. The youngsters David Moscow and Jared Rushton add immeasurably to the enjoyment factor with natural depictions of smart but also awkward 13 year old friends.

Big is an exquisite package of entertainment, big on laughs and even bigger on heart.

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Movie Review: Awakenings (1990)

A medical drama set in the world of catatonic patients, Awakenings benefits from an inspirational story and extraordinary performances, but does suffer from some excessive dosages of syrup.

In 1969, the socially awkward Dr. Malcolm Sayer (Robin Williams) joins the staff of a New York Hospital and stumbles upon an almost forgotten wing where unresponsive patients in long-term catatonic states are cared for, including a man called Leonard (Robert De Niro). With help from nurse Eleanor Costello (Julie Kavner), Sayer discovers that the patients do respond to sudden stimuli. He suspects that their brains may still be functioning at some level, and investigates a potentially common cause for their condition: they all contracted encephalitis as children.

After consulting with expert Dr. Peter Ingham (Max Von Sydow), Sayer hypothesizes that the patients are suffering an extreme form of Parkinson's disease triggered by the encephalitis. When the new experimental drug L-Dopa becomes available, Sayer administers it on a trial basis to Leonard. It takes a strong dose, but Leonard is suddenly awakened, and appears to make a remarkable recovery. With Leonard exploring the world around him including befriending frequent hospital visitor Paula (Penelope Ann Miller), Sayer convinces the hospital administrators, including the skeptical Dr. Kaufman (John Heard), to similarly treat all the catatonic patients. But the euphoria of success is soon tempered by the emotional and physical implications of the medication.

Awakenings is based on a true episode from the life of British neurologist and author Oliver Sacks. Directed by Penny Marshall from a Steven Zaillian script, the film opens with Leonard as young boy gradually losing his ability to write coherently, before jumping ahead about 40 years. From then on Awakenings is almost entirely set at the nondescript hospital, a kind and gentle place where the catatonic patients receive decent care but are otherwise all but forgotten.

The film proceeds at a slow and steady pace, Sayer (a restrained Robin Williams performance) the one major character exploring his way through the hospital and other than Costello, finding few sympathetic ears. Kaufman and his colleagues are not too interested in doing much of anything for the long-term catatonic patients, and Sayer faces passive negativity in trying to overcome the inertia of a do-minimum treatment regime.

Once the L-Dopa medication is administered, Leonard awakens and becomes the second major presence. This gives the film a major boost as De Niro steps forward and gets to deploy his impressive skills as a man getting reacquainted with a world he unwillingly left as a young boy decades ago. Leonard then begins to struggle with unanticipated side-effects, and De Niro lets loose in an impressive display of physical discomfort and mental anguish. The combination of Williams and De Niro (who was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award) both in top form is irresistible, and they carry Awakenings towards some impressive emotional peaks.

While the film has undoubted good intentions and plenty of heart, the lingering suspicion begins to creep in that the story is much ado about not very much. Sacks was adept at writing about his achievements, Hollywood is always good at manufacturing heroes and inflating accomplishments, and the two come together for a grand rendition of what ultimately was a limited success story, more a footnote than a breakthrough.

Which still takes nothing away from a well-constructed and human-centered drama, an uplifting but grounded story of hope and science briefly lifting a dark veil of despair.

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Movie Review: Deceived (1991)

A blundering thriller with a few tense moments thrown in, Deceived relies exclusively on plot holes and general stupidity to build its narrative, and is quickly sucked into the vortex of the forgettable.

In New York City, Adrienne (Goldie Hawn) is an art restoration specialist. She meets and falls in love with art dealer Jack Saunders (John Heard). They get married, have a child and seem to have the perfect life. Then Jack reveals that he is under suspicion at work for stealing a precious necklace. One of his colleagues is found dead, and Adrienne starts noticing Jack's weird behaviour, including potentially lying about a business trip to Boston.

When she confronts him, Jack abruptly leaves the house, and word soon arrives that he was killed in a car crash. Through school records and by tracking down family friends and relatives, Adrienne starts to delve into the history of the man who was her husband, only to discover that the man she married was an impostor, and not called Jack at all. He was Frank Sullivan, a lonesome boy who was raised by an unloving mother (Beatrice Straight). Adrienne soon realizes that not only was her entire marriage a sham, but she is in mortal danger because the precious necklace has gone missing and there is a killer on the loose who thinks she has it.

Directed by Damian (son of Richard) Harris, Deceived would give made-for-TV movies a bad name had it been made for TV. The attempt to place Goldie Hawn in a serious film backfires spectacularly, although through no fault of her own, as she is serviceable as a damsel in distress. The problem lies within a pretty awful screenplay by Mary Agnes Donoghue and Bruce Joel Rubin, who can both do better, but maybe not in this genre. If there ever was the germ of a good idea here, it was eradicated by the sloppy, insulting script.

Deceived is the kind of thriller that relies on everyone being fairly imbecilic in order to move its plot forward. This is a film in which the police do not bother with fundamentals such as checking the identity of a crash victim. The tax authorities somehow do not notice that a dead man has been paying taxes for years. The murder of a respected art curator does not appear to ever be investigated. A smart wife who seriously suspects her husband of lying about traveling accepts his lame explanations and fails to request simple proof, such as an airline ticket or a hotel receipt.

The incredible lapses and ridiculous actions continue. A major expensive artifact coincidentally falls to the ground unnoticed, then is mistakenly placed in a basket of trinkets, and then casually walks out of the house around the neck of a child, with no one the wiser. Meanwhile, Adrienne, seeking a simple phone, has to wander through countless museum hallways and spooky backrooms where she will conveniently stumble onto a dead body.

The film ends with an interminable chase through a building under construction, and a character stepping into the void, a case of plot holes and literal holes finally overlapping to end the agony.

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Movie Review: After Hours (1985)

A relative oddity in Martin Scorsese's career, After Hours is one man's intriguing journey through a single wild night. The film may lack Scorsese's typical intensity, but the small scale quirky nightmare creates its own aura.

Paul (Griffin Dunne) has a fairly boring life as a word processing support technician at a faceless corporation in New York. After work one evening, he meets Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) at a coffee shop, and she gives him her phone number after they seem to hit it off. Later that night Paul finds the courage to call, and Marcy invites him to her apartment, all the way downtown in the relatively wild SoHo district.

The night starts off badly when during an insane taxi ride (and yes, the crazed driver looks like Robert De Niro), Paul loses all his money. He arrives at Marcy's flat to find the sculptress Kiki (Linda Fiorentino) hard at work, with Marcy arriving late after a mysterious trip to the drugstore. The more Paul discovers about Marcy, the more agitated he gets. Hints of her body being gruesomely burned and what appears to be a nasty spat with a boyfriend convince Paul to split. But he is penniless and far away from home. His night will include a sojourn into a wild nightclub, encounters with hyperactive neighbourhood burglars (Cheech and Chong), a vigilante mob of local residents, at least one dead body, and unexpected encounters with a bartender (John Heard), a waitress (Teri Garr), a prostitute, and another creepy sculptress (Verna Bloom).

Dancing throughout with black comedy, After Hours is what a nightmare feels like when everything is going wrong and waking up is impossible. Paul recognizes early that he does not belong in SoHo, but finding a way out is another matter. Fate conspires to block him at every turn, from his money flying out of the taxi window to the subway fare increasing that midnight above the value of the few coins in his possession. And every character he meets proves to be progressively weirder, demanding his attention and in some cases literally wanting a piece of him.

Interestingly, all of the mortal dangers encountered by Paul during his dreadful night stem from women, and he is initially enticed to SoHo by a woman. The women themselves are all both victims and predators, Paul realizing that SoHo at night is world of unhinged extremes, whereas he belongs in a much more mundane daylight corporate environment dealing with computers and bland professionals.

After Hours does not quite reach madcap levels that could perhaps have been anticipated, but Scorsese was unlikely to have been trying to go overboard. The film derives its creepiness from remaining almost plausible as a trip that provides persistent reminders why some forbidden places need to remain forbidden.

The large cast of actors who never quite made it as superstars is a perfect fit for the story of a suddenly side-tracked life. Dunne has the everyman looks that allow his nightmare to be adopted by anyone, while in support Arquette, Fiorentino, and Garr work hard to project dangerous hidden attributes that are quite spooky but never quite revealed.

After Hours is a stimulating quest to escape from the consequences of a wrong turn, filled with the wild yet kinky beasts that occupy the fringes of dark and unexplored pathways.

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Movie Review: The Pelican Brief (1993)

A political conspiracy thriller that makes little sense as a story, The Pelican Brief survives as entertainment thanks to charismatic stars who glide above the increasingly ridiculous events erupting all around them.

Two United States supreme court justices are shockingly assassinated. In New Orleans, law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts) conducts some solo research and hypothesizes that the murders are linked to a court case related to big oil drilling in pristine wildlife habitats. The bombshell is that the tycoon behind the oil corporation has strong connections with the President (Robert Culp).

Shaw writes up her theory, which becomes known as The Pelican Brief, and provides a copy to her teacher and lover Thomas Callahan (Sam Shepard). Callahan is intrigued enough to forward the document to his friend Gavin Verheek (John Heard), a lawyer who works at the FBI. The report makes its way to the director of the FBI and then the White House. What was an interesting theory turns out to be painfully close to the truth, and soon people start dying, including Callahan, who is blown up, and Verheek, killed in a hotel room.

Running for her life, Shaw turns to Washington Herald journalist Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), who is poking around the justice assassination story. Shaw and Grantham team up and have to duck bullets and avoid explosions as they attempt to uncover the conspiracy behind the murders.

The script by director Alan J. Pakula, adapting the John Grisham book, has a yawning black hole at the middle of it. Darby Shaw is of no consequence to the events that she uncovered: her report consists of conjecture inspired from matters of public record, and she herself witnessed nothing and holds no evidence that is otherwise unavailable. For Shaw to become an assassination target once her report is circulating throughout Washington DC is disingenuous and nothing but a cheap plot device to place a damsel in distress, and even at a superficial level of scrutiny The Pelican Brief suffers for it.

Moving past the unjustified histrionics, the movie is never enthralling but always engaging thanks to a stellar cast, with weighty performers in most of the meaningful roles. Julia Roberts, still refreshingly eager to please and not yet the diva, is appealing as Darby Shaw, despite remaining surprisingly sane as the bodies pile up around her. Denzel Washington is equally in his energetic prime, and provides the most solid core to the movie as investigative reporter Gray Grantham.

In support, the likes of Sam Shepard, John Heard, Robert Culp, John Lithgow and Hume Cronyn ensure that the secondary characters add plenty of colour to the proceedings, providing enough distraction from the progressively more improbable drama to maintain interest.

Pakula, directing what proved to be his penultimate film, is deep in his All The President's Men comfort zone of Washington DC-based thrillers revolving around political conspiracies, with journalists stunningly more competent than law enforcement authorities. Pakula's directing is effortless and polished, and he makes the best use of his stars and locations.

Like the pelican itself, The Pelican Brief is curiously noble and occasionally does fly, but it's far from the most streamlined of birds.

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