Jackie Brown Jackie Brown THR…

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown

THRILLER:

1997-12-25

2:35

R (Profanity, Violence, Sexual Situations, Drugs)

Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino, based on the book

Rum Punch

by Elmore Leonard

Guillermo Navarro

U.S. Distributor:

Miramax Films

Subtitles:

none

It has been three long years since Quentin Tarantino stunned the cinema world by claiming the
Cannes Film Festival's Palme D'Or, a $100 million-plus box office gross, and an Oscar nomination
? all for his sophomore outing,

Pulp Fiction

. Since then, the talented film maker has been virtually invisible, surfacing briefly as a co-director of the
wildly uneven

Four Rooms

and the screenwriter of the gory vampire-fest,

From Dusk Till Dawn

. In between, he has moonlighted as an "actor" with several decidedly unmemorable performances.
Now, with much fanfare and anticipation, Tarantino has returned with his third directorial effort,

Jackie Brown

. And, while this motion picture, adapted from Elmore Leonard's novel,

Rum Punch

, offers solid entertainment, those expecting another bravura outing from
Tarantino will leave theaters disappointed. For the most part,

Jackie Brown

is a pretty
ordinary crime movie.

The story, which starts out slowly, develops into a twisty affair, with double-crosses and triple-
crosses. And the movie is littered with occasional Tarantino trademarks: witty dialogue,
unexpected gunfire, '70s pop tunes, and close-ups of womens' bare feet. Yet, for all of that, the
production is something of a letdown. The sheer, in-your-face exuberance that marked

Reservoir Dogs

and especially

Pulp Fiction

is absent. The mostly-straightforward chronology of

Jackie Brown

doesn't match up
favorably to the non-linear style of Tarantino's previous efforts ? an approach that added tension
and edginess to the narratives. And there aren't nearly as many deliciously offbeat conversations
this time around. There's a Samuel L. Jackson monologue about guns, a Jackson/Chris Tucker
argument regarding the merits of hiding in a car trunk, and a Jackson/Robert De Niro exchange
that recalls some of the Jackson/Travolta material from

Pulp Fiction

, but that's about it.

Jackie Brown

's lone "innovation" is its presentation of a crucial sequence from three
different perspectives. This isn't exactly an original technique ? it has been done numerous times
before, most famously in Akira Kurosawa's

Rashomon

and most recently in Edward Zwick's

Courage Under Fire

. However, while in those two movies (and others), there was a legitimate plot reason for the multiple points-of-view, Tarantino's sole purpose for using it appears to be because it's unconventional. Had the
scenes in question been shown from only one of the three vantages, nothing would have been lost.
As a result, this aspect of the film is little more than a curiosity.

For the second picture in a row, Tarantino is attempting to revive the career of a '70s icon. This
time around, instead of John Travolta, it's Blaxploitation queen Pam Grier (Foxy Brown has
become Jackie Brown). In one of many nods to the most famous segment of Grier's career,
Tarantino uses a '70s song to accompany her first appearance during the opening credits. There
are also several instances during

Jackie Brown

when the director offers a sly wink
towards certain conventions of the Blaxploitation genre (although Grier never does any butt-
kicking).

Grier is Jackie Brown, a flight attendant who gets caught transporting drugs and money into the
United States. She's working for gun dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), but she keeps her
mouth shut under questioning, despite pressure from Ray Nicolet (Michael Keaton), a Federal
official. No longer sure whether or not he can trust Jackie, Ordell arranges for a bail bondsman,
Max Cherry (Robert Forster, TV's "Banyon") to post the necessary $10,000, then plans to shoot
Jackie if she proves disloyal. Jackie passes Ordell's test, however, and soon the two of them are
plotting a way to smuggle $500,000 of Ordell's money into the United States without tipping off
the Feds. Soon, just about everyone is after that money, including Jackie, Max, Ray, Ordell's
perpetually oversexed and drugged-out girlfriend, Melanie (Bridget Fonda), and his right-hand
man, Louis (Robert De Niro).

Unsurprisingly, the most memorable performance is turned in by Samuel L. Jackson, but Ordell
isn't nearly as invigorating or compelling a character as Jules from

Pulp Fiction

. In
addition to looking fantastic, Pam Grier is also quite good, although hers is not an Oscar-caliber
performance (although she might get a nomination). Robert Forster and Michael Keaton are solid
in their tough-guys-who-rarely-smile roles. Bridget Fonda is around for three discernible reasons:
to look sexy in a bikini, to provide a little twisted comedy, and to satisfy Tarantino's foot fetish.
Robert De Niro is criminally underused in a part that could have been played equally well by any
grungy-looking, middle-aged actor.

The film, which clocks in at several minutes over the two-and-a-half hour mark, is probably too
long for the material, but the plot is convoluted enough to keep us guessing throughout (although
the payoff is a letdown). Tarantino keeps things moving along nicely, with a heavier dose of
humor and less violence than in

Pulp Fiction

, but, on the whole, this movie seems more
like the work of one of his wannabes than something from the director himself. When it comes to
recent caper films (like

The Grifters

and

Bound

),

Jackie Brown

is a second-tier effort. It's an entertaining diversion, but not a masterpiece, and certainly not an Oscar contender.