Tarantino's best, but not necessarily for Pulp or Dogs fans

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2001)

This movie was the best Hollywood flic I've seen in a long while.
The film marks Pam Grier's triumphant return to centre stage after years of neglect following the end of her early career in Blacksploitation pics. Still looking knock-out gorgeous in middle-age, Grier proves to all naysayers once and for all with this film that she definitely can act. Clearly Tarantino's tribute to one of his favourite actresses, the film's soundtrack (another excellent Tarantino soundtrack, this time with an appropriate focus on 70s funk and soul) even features one song sung by Grier, and another by Bobby Womack, the singer Grier first began her showbiz career as a back-up singer for.
As equally brilliant as the the casting of Grier in the main role is the casting of Robert Forster as Jackie Brown's bail bondsman. The on-screen chemistry between Grier and Forster works perfectly, and the two's final scene together is the moving pinnacle of the entire inspired film.
But those Tarantino fans looking for the graphic violence of Reservoir Dogs or the snide cynicism of Pulp Fiction will be disappointed with this film, which is a much deeper, quieter and more mature work. A good crime tale told with a nice plot twist, but more than this a deeper probing into the issues of aging, life and intimacy, this work satisfies in ways that Tarantino's previous works could not.
With this film, Tarantino has made me into a fellow Pam Grier fan, and has left me waiting to see more from both of them.