Hello Jackie, you look nice.

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2020)

Continuing on with my revisit of Quentin Tarantino's back catalogue lands us on "Jackie Brown", the least Tarantino feeling movies he's done.
Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is an airline hostess who's caught transporting money back from Mexico for LA gun dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L Jackson). Trying to stay out of Jail, she cuts a deal with ATF agent Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) to catch Ordell with the money in return for her immunity. But knowing that Ordell is a dangerous man she comes up with another plan, to keep his money for herself, but that plan requires the co-operation of bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster).
That feeling that this isn't really a Tarantino movie is hard to shake. Partialy, I think it's because despite only being three films in, he already had a preferred cast of collaborators, a repertory theatre if you like, but "Jackie Brown" has a cast of actors he was using for the first time, and then mostly wouldn't use again. It also doesn't sound like a Tarantino film, the dialogue is rarely as snappy as in the previous two films, I'm not sure , but I wonder if that's because he's adapting the Elmore Leonard book and isn't quite as free as he otherwise would be to write what he likes. The use of music is different too, it's quieter and relegated to real times you would hear music, car radios, in stores and bars. It looks like a Tarantino film though, in terms of shot choice and Sally Menke's editing.
None of that goes to say that the film isn't good, or even great. It's a lengthy character driven twisty thriller. The performances are generally pretty good, although I don't much care for De Niro's lazy mumbling turn as one of Robbie's friends. But whenever Grier, Jackson or Robert Forster are on screen it really shines. Despite its length it flies by fairly quickly and arrives at a satisfying conclusion.
I was hoping to have the experience that others appear to have had with "Jackie Brown" and rediscovered this as the underappreciated classic and becoming their favourite Tarantino film - unfortunately, though I really liked the film, I still don't feel that way about it.