Jackie Brown Review
by "Jacob Stohler" (jstohler AT nando DOT net)December 13th, 1997
JACKIE BROWN, rated R
Caught a special sneak preview last night of Quentin's latest, "Jackie Brown." What should you expect? A lot of the same, which in this case is good.
"Jackie Brown" has all the usual Tarantino elements: it's long, it has a range of characters who all fit together somehow, time shifts in unexpected ways, there's little romance or sex, violence is random and there are moments of delicious tension. The difference this time is Elmore Leonard's complex story about who's scamming who in order to walk away with $500,000 in dirty money, and following the different stories spun by the characters is quite a challenge. Leonard's story is darker, as characters talk about growing older rather than about foot massages. This is as much a movie about life choices and how we screw them up than about the dark pleasures of the crime underworld.
Pam Grier is, as reported, excellent. She carries the picture without a hitch and looks great doing it -- it's hard to take your eyes off her and her crooked smile. And when the '70s music cues on her, it's heaven. Sam L. Jackson is his usual brash, charismatic self, only this time he's a bit less lovable than "Pulp Fiction's" Jules. In fact, most of the characters are harder edged, not having been infused with QT's child-like love of dialog. DeNiro seems wasted in this respect -- his Louis character is almost monosyllabic and seems to serve little purpose other than to be Jackson's sidekick. It would have been interesting (and also a little more predictable which is probably why QT didn't do it) to have DeNiro and Michael Keaton switch roles.
But, on the whole, "Jackie Brown" is good for all the right reasons. Like everything Quentin does, it's both fun and funny.
Interesting sidebar: Just like in "Pulp Fiction," the funniest moment in this movie seems to be when someone gets shot (I won't spoil the surprise and say who, but it's the scene in the parking lot).
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