An Underrated Look At Desperate People

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2005)

Quentin Tarantino knows what he likes when making a movie, and what he likes are actors and actresses that once had a career, and then fell off the radar. Jackie Brown stars two actors that fit that mold, Pam Grier, the 70s blaxploitation star, and Robert Forster, who gives an Oscar nominated performance. Grier plays the title character, Jackie Brown, who's an stewardess for the worst airline that connects between her home of Los Angeles and Cabo San Lucas. After her criminal past, she lives on her $16,000 salary, picking up a few dollars by running money from Mexico to her contact in LA, played by the always dependable Samuel L. Jackson. Robert Forster plays a worn down, 50ish year old bail bondsman who meets Jackie while picking her up from jail after she's caught with drugs with the money headed to Jackson's character. While this film boasts the most plot of any of Tarantino's movies, it is still not the most important part of the film. The interaction between two lost souls over the age of 40, and how they try to outsmart their enemies (gun dealers, the feds, the police) is fun to watch. Some complain that at 2 hours 30 minutes it's too long, but I disagree. The length allows the characters to talk to each other, not just about plot points, but to also just talk. The film also features Bridget Fonda as a beach bum, Robert De Niro as a baked ex-con in a truly funny, if not subdued role, and Michael Keaton as an ATF agent who thinks he knows how to handle Jackie Brown. Jackie Brown is on one level about an airline worker smuggling money into the country for her boss, but on a more important level, how desperate and tired people of a certain age will act when the chance is there to make a change in their life.