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Review by Jack Foley |
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DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Disc One: Quentin Tarantino DVD intro; Soundtrack
chapter selection; Subtitle trivia track. Disc Two: 'How It Went Down' original
documentary; A look back at Jackie Brown - interview with Quentin Tarantino;
Chick with Guns video; Deleted and alternate scenes with Tarantino introduction;
Siskel & Ebert review Jackie Brown; Jackie Brown on MTV (promotional contest);
Theatrical trailers; TV spots; Still galleries; Reviews; Articles; Filmographies;
Robert Forster trailers; Pam Grier radio spots; Pam Grier trailers. DVD ROM
Bonus: Stash The Cash trivia game; Enhanced playback track; Screenplay viewer.
HAVING, quite literally, blown critics away with his first two movies, Reservoir
Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino
fired his first blank with this toothless, if faithful, adaptation of Elmore
Leonard's Rum Punch.
Concentrating on airline stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier), as she is coerced
by the Feds to turn snitch on Samuel L Jackson's gun trader (Ordell) only
to make a play herself for the gangster's money, the movie is a self-indulgent
meander through self-referential cinema excess, despite boasting some outstanding
performances from its talented cast.
Once again, the director displays a talent for being able to revive the career
fortunes of several of his lead players (most notably Seventies icon Grier,
and Robert Forster as a sympathetic bail bondsman), but the quality of its
performances is not enough to save the proceedings from getting lost amid
its misjudged first hour.
It's as though Tarantino, sick of the many in-jokes being made by other directors
at his visual style, has decided to hit back by doing them to death - so that
the trademark walk which opened Reservoir Dogs is replicated here in so many
different ways that proceedings become nausea-inducing.
In fact, nothing much happens at all during the first half of the movie -
before Grier makes her play and we see events unfold from the different perspectives
of the characters involved.
Some have praised Jackie Brown for being Tarantino's most mature movie to
date, while others have described it as the director's biggest disappointment.
Yet while there is plenty to admire, I have to confess to falling into the
latter category. Tarantino is at his best when running wild behind the lens
and it is telling that his weakest work is derived from a different source
other than his own, when he has to show a little restraint in order to honour
its material.
As such, audiences are spared the violent excesses of his previous two films,
or the type of scene that is difficult to watch, but gone to is much of the
charisma of Dogs and Fiction. At least the dialogue has been retained, though.
In
the lead role, Grier is terrific as the struggling Jackie Brown, making one
last stab at doing something positive with her life in the face of insurmountable
odds, while her supporting players are equally good value - be it Samuel L
Jackson's sleezy gun dealer, Forster's world-weary bondsman, Michael Keaton's
ambitious Fed, Bridget Fonda's stoned California babe, or Chris Tucker's typically
motor-mouthed turn as one of Ordell's contacts.
Only Robert De Niro disappoints, turning in a slightly lazy performance as
an ex-con who seems to be having difficulty staying awake!
The second half of the movie, to be fair, is also quite exciting - but then
anything that helps to enliven the first hour is a bonus and it is a relief
that Jackie Brown doesn't continue in the same vein throughout. Accomplished
though it may be, one can only hope that Tarantino gets back to basics with
Kill Bill, his self-penned next movie which sounds, on the surface, like a
return to form!
