Review of Jackie Brown (1997) by Ola G — 06 Mar 2016

Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline. To make ends meet, she smuggles money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), a black-market gun runner living in the Los Angeles metropolitan area area under the ATF's close watch, forcing him to use couriers. Ordell learns that another of his couriers, Beaumont Livingston, has been arrested. Assuming that Livingston will become an informant in order to avoid jail time, Ordell arranges for bail with bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster), then coaxes Livingston into a car trunk and murders him. Acting on information Beaumont had already shared, ATF agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) and LAPD detective Mark Dargus intercept Jackie as she returns to the United States with Ordell's cash and some cocaine that Brown was unaware was stashed in her bag. Initially refusing to cut a deal, she is sent to jail on possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Sensing that Jackie may also now be a threat to inform, Ordell goes back to Max to arrange her bail. Max picks up Jackie from the jail and begins to develop an attraction to her while driving her home. Ordell later arrives at Jackie's house intending to murder her to prevent her from informing on him. She surprises him by pulling a gun that she surreptitiously took from Max's glove compartment. Jackie negotiates a deal with Ordell to pretend to help the authorities while smuggling in $550,000 of Ordell's money, enough to allow him to retire. To carry out this plan, Ordell is counting on Melanie Ralston (Bridget Fonda), an unambitious, stoned surfer girl with whom he lives, and Louis Gara (Robert De Niro), a friend and former cellmate. Unaware of Jackie and Ordell's plan to smuggle in $550,000, Nicolette and Dargus devise a sting to catch Ordell during a transfer of $50,000. Unbeknownst to all, Jackie plans to double-cross everyone and keep $500,000 for herself. She recruits Max to assist with her plan and offers him a cut...

When "Jackie Brown" came out in 1997 we got a more sombre, stylized and dialogue driven film with less action from Tarantino as he in this case adapted a script from an Elmore Leonard novel. The problem is that Tarantino needs highly dynamic and fast paced scripts like "Pulp Fiction" as he knows how to handle that sort of story. With "Jackie Brown" he tells a character-driven crime story in a linear matter and he ends up in this over drawn, boring and stale direction that drags everything down and the focus gets lost the deeper we get into the story. The dialogue is classic Tarantino (but by now we have seen Samuel L. Jackson deliver the same speech it seems some many times in Tarantino films it hurts), the sudden violence and the editing with flashbacks and rich excellent soundtrack is also classic Tarantino. But, this time he simply fails to deliver something that keeps you intrigued during the running time. Ok acting from Jackson, Forster, Keaton, Fonda and De Niro. But, it´s the talented and beautiful Pam Grier that steals the show. She's cool, tough, vulnerable and very attractive. An actress I feel is underrated and she really deserved that renewed place in the limelight with the role as Jackie Brown as she makes the most out of it. This is however not amongst Tarantino´s best films in my opinion.