{"id":682,"date":"2014-04-16T04:06:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-16T04:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.wordpress.com\/?p=682"},"modified":"2021-03-04T21:51:14","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T21:51:14","slug":"the-pelican-briefly-held-great-beauty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/?p=682","title":{"rendered":"The pelican briefly held great beauty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Pelican Brief<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(1993)<\/p>\n

Two\u00a0pro-choice<\/a>\u00a0Supreme Court<\/a> justices are assassinated by an evil corporation in order to sabotage a pending\u00a0environmental lawsuit.\u00a0 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\u00a0magical concoction of statistical analysis and intuition.<\/p>\n

Julia Roberts is great in tragic weepers<\/a> and romantic comedies<\/a>, but straight-forward thrillers are not her strong suit and she’s not believable.<\/p>\n

Denzel Washington is reporter Gray Grantham, one of the few people who believes Darby.\u00a0 Washington gives it his best effort, but the story is so bad and Roberts so out of her element, his performance suffers.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Washington Herald<\/em> can’t print a story detailing their numerous\u00a0escapes\u00a0from a violent death without proof linking the murders to the corporation.<\/p>\n

Alan Paluka directed Klute\u00a0<\/em>(1971) and All the President’s Men <\/em>(1976).\u00a0 Those are atmospheric and effective political thrillers, but this is like a really\u00a0bad season of 24<\/em><\/a>, only less believable.<\/p>\n

Watching this movie, you realize how much author\u00a0John Grisham<\/a> has in common with Dan Brown<\/a>.\u00a0 Brown would have us believe religion is a giant festering conspiracy<\/a>; Grisham\u00a0was saying the same thing about the law a decade earlier.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Great Beauty<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2013)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On his 65th birthday,\u00a0he walks through Rome reflecting on his life. The first half of the movie, as he meanders through the city, is a Felliniesque<\/a> version of My Dinner with Andre <\/em>(1981). But when Jep\u00a0attends a dinner with an elderly nun, it transforms into\u00a0a sublime meditation on the purpose of life.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Jep is moved by the encounter, realizing it’s possible to break through the tyranny of self-interest.\u00a0 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\u00a0is at least one person who can see the great beauty of the world, all is not lost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Pelican Brief\u00a0(1993) Two\u00a0pro-choice\u00a0Supreme Court justices are assassinated by an evil corporation in order to sabotage a pending\u00a0environmental lawsuit.\u00a0 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\u00a0magical concoction of statistical analysis and intuition. Julia… Continue reading The pelican briefly held great beauty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,109,218,354,376,426,429,441,609,747],"class_list":["post-682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-progress","tag-alan-pakula","tag-best-foreign-language-film","tag-denzel-washington","tag-hume-cronyn","tag-italian-films","tag-john-grisham","tag-john-lithgow","tag-julia-roberts","tag-paolo-sorrentino","tag-stanley-tucci","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=682"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11726,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682\/revisions\/11726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tenkmovies.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}