THE PELICAN BRIEF (Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Starring Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, John Lithgow)

I’LL TRY and keep this brief, which is more than director Alan J. Pakula does. Once the doyen of conspiracy thrillers, Pakula (continuing the descent into hacksville that he started so unmemorably with Consenting Adults) churns out a glossily transparent reworking of territory he has covered far better before. All that liberal paranoia about lethal government agents is looking rather passé, especially now that in America it is the right wing republicans who are accusing the left wing democrats of shadowy double dealing.

The most baffling mystery here is how has John Grisham become so all pervasive? We keep being told that he is the best selling author in the world, as if this is supposed to be some kind of recommendation. He’s right up there with Arthur Hailey and Harold Robbins as a master of the ludicrous pot-boiler. His genre is an aerobicised cousin of the legal thriller, in which his protagonists are more likely to jog past a courtroom than actually go in it.

Like The Firm, this is another running lawyer movie. The athletic representative of the legal profession this time is Julia Roberts, who may now be attached to Lyle Lovett but will always be Mrs Tom Cruise in my personal alternate universe. Like Tom, Roberts fights for liberty and justice with two weapons: a goofy grin, and a cute worried frown. It’s good to know there are lawyers like her out there, ready to defend the constitutional right of an individual to wear big hair.

If you can buy Julia as a super-bright law student who uncovers as assassination conspiracy and outwits legions of bad guys while still (apparently) finding time to regularly visit her hair stylist then The Pelican Brief is acceptable, mainstream entertainment, Pretty Lawyer meets The Fugitive (from the reality police).