Jackie Brown: 1997, dir. Quentin Tarantino. Seen on DVD (Jan. 8).
This is what I get for waiting a month to write a damn review. All I can think of was, “Damn, this was a good movie, and much different than what I expected.”
A lot of people have called Jackie Brown Tarantino’s least typical film. There are a few of his trademark touches: using 1970s actors (Pam Grier), the thin and slightly crazy blonde (Bridget Fonda instead of Uma Thurman this time), nervous trigger-happy criminals, Samuel L. Jackson, odd jumps and rewinds in time, scenes in which the camera is placed oddly for stylistic effect, and so forth.
However, the storyline is stronger and the dialogue is less annoying to me than in other Tarantino films, and for that I wonder if we ought to thank Elmore Leonard. I did not know this until after I saw the movie, but it is adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch (although Michael Keaton made me wonder … he plays the same character in Out of Sight). Sometimes Tarantino movies make me feel like I am supposed to stop and marvel at the wonderfulness of the director and his unique style of filmmaking, which annoys me and makes me want to throw things. That did not seem to happen in this film.
It’s a typical Elmore Leonard plot: Jackie Brown (Grier) is a flight attendant who is caught by the FBI smuggling money from Mexico. But she’s sharp and tough and manages to manipulate the FBI agents tailing her and the guy she’s smuggling money for Ordell (Jackson) to pull off her own caper. Or is it heist? Yes, this is a heist film from the beginning—specifically, from the moment Jackie confronts Ordell in her dark apartment.
Pam Grier was a pleasant surprise. I expected good performances from the better-known actors, such as Samuel L. Jackson and Robert De Niro and Bridget Fonda, but I hadn’t seen Grier before and she was just perfect. Robert Forster was nicely understated as the bail bondsman.
The whole movie was a pleasant surprise. I cannot stress that enough. A strong story. An excellent cast. A lack of overly annoying quirky filmmaking techniques, or hommage that calls attention to the fact that woo, the director sure knows an awful lot about movies, to the point where it sometimes seems to border on plagiarism. (I have no doubt that there are plenty of scenes in this movie that reference other films, but it seems more subtle than in other Tarantino films.) Before we started watching the movie, I noticed the long running time and was worried that it would drag, but I hardly noticed the time passing.
Just because a film (or TV show) is adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good. Look at The Big Bounce … or rather, don’t. I don’t know what inspired Tarantino to be more subtle than usual, but his adaptation and direction were right on target in this movie. Will he ever calm down this much again? I hope so.
Jackie Brown is a good movie, one I’d like to see again, to catch any details I might have missed the first time. Even if you don’t like Quentin Tarantino’s movies, you might like seeing this film.
And Jackie Brown and Out of Sight are now my favorite Elmore Leonard adaptations, with Get Shorty lagging behind somewhat. I suspect that Be Cool (which is releasing in the next couple of weeks) will not come close.