Jackie Brown (1997)

Fine. That's the word. I've been sitting with Jackie Brown for a while now, turning it over, looking for the angle that makes it click, and I keep landing in the same place: it's fine. Not bad. Not a disaster. Just... fine. And from Tarantino, fine feels like a minor disappointment.

Let me be clear, I love the man's work. I've written about Pulp Fiction (1994) on here before, and I'd defend Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) to anyone who'd listen. The point is, I came to Jackie Brown as a genuine fan, not a cynic looking for cracks. I wanted it to grab me. It didn't, not really.

The cast is genuinely stacked, and I'll give the film full credit for that. Pam Grier is an excellent choice for the lead, and she carries the whole thing on her shoulders with real presence and dignity. She's the best reason to watch this film, and she makes you root for Jackie in a way that keeps you from fully switching off. The supporting players bring plenty to the table too. Nobody's phoning it in. And the soundtrack, as you'd expect from Tarantino, is absolutely spot on. The man has an ear for music like nobody else working in Hollywood.

But here's the thing: the pacing absolutely crawls. And not in a controlled, deliberate, "trust me it's building to something" kind of way. Just slow. Jackie Brown is Tarantino doing a slow burn, and there are stretches where it stops feeling like a choice and starts feeling like the film has simply lost its energy. The razor-sharp wit that makes his best work so intoxicating, those electric exchanges where every line feels loaded, is largely absent here. You get glimpses of it. Brief flickers. But they never quite ignite.

Great moments do exist, scattered throughout. There are scenes that remind you exactly who made this film, where the dialogue crackles and the tension quietly tightens. But they feel isolated. They don't build into anything. The film never fully earns the sum of its parts, and when the credits roll, I was left with a vague sense of having watched something pleasant but forgettable. Which is not a sentence I ever expected to write about a Tarantino picture.

I've seen some people argue that Jackie Brown is his most mature work, that it's a deliberate gear-change, a tribute to blaxploitation cinema that rewards patience. And maybe there's something in that. But maturity without momentum is still a hard sell for me. I didn't want a lecture on the genre. I wanted the film to move.

For comparison, when I think about where this sits in his catalogue, I'd put it second from the bottom. Only Death Proof sits below it for me, and that one at least has the good sense to go completely off the rails in its back half. Jackie Brown never goes off the rails. It stays very safely on them, trundling along, and somehow that feels like the bigger crime.

Pam Grier deserved a better film around her. The soundtrack deserved a better film to soundtrack. And honestly, Tarantino is capable of so much more than this. Worth a watch for the lead performance alone, but don't go in expecting fireworks. Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1997  | Watched: 2005-03-03

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Quentin Tarantino: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) · Inglourious Basterds (2009) · Pulp Fiction (1994) · Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
More from the 1990s: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · Blue (1993) · Cemetery Man (1994)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)