Jackie Brown

Quentin Tarantino strikes again, but with Jackie Brown he is in a more subdued register than we have seen from him before. Apart from the length, which is quite inexcusable, Jackie Brown is a charming crime caper characterised by a rather ingenious plot and that special Tarantinoesque dialogue.

Jackie Brown relaunches the gorgeous blaxploitation star Pam Grier as the middle-aged air hostess Jackie Brown, who smuggles money for the furiously crazy arms dealer Ordell Robbie. Jackie is nabbed at the airport by two policemen, one of whom, Ray Nicolette, is from the FBI. Jackie is in a nasty fix, for Ordell kills snitches in cold blood without a second thought. The only way she can get out of the mess is to con both the police and the criminals. Jackie's only confidant is the likeable bail bondsman Max Cherry, who has fallen head over heels for her.

Robert DeNiro and Bridget Fonda appear in well-written supporting roles as, respectively, Ordell's slightly dim henchman Louis and his pot-smoking girlfriend.

Typically for Tarantino, he cannot resist narrative somersaults. The climax of the story, Jackie's triumph, is shown from three different points of view. There would still be room for those, even if the director did the film a favour and cut it down.