."I can do that."
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Jackie Brown (Grier) is a middle-age flight attendant for a crummy, transit airline specializing in shuttle trips back and forth between LA and Mexico. To supplement her meager salary, she trafficks money and drugs for Ordell Robbie (Jackson), an LA arms dealer and violent criminal currently under investigation by federal authorities. On a routine trip back into the US, Jackie's apprehended by police and briefly detained only to be released on bail (paid by Ordell) before she can be fully interrogated. Despite her freedom, Jackie, along with Max Cherry (Forster), the bondsman Ordell has hired, knows she's now a marked woman--her testimony to the cops along with a likely plea deal the only thing needed for a fatal indictment of her 'employer'. Knowing that sooner rather than later Ordell will try and remove her from the picture, Jackie decides on the only risk worth taking and boldly steps forward in her design, swindling Ordell out of several hundred thousand dollars in cash while giving the cops the slip and making a break for it with help from Cherry.
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Quentin Tarantino's follow-up to Pulp Fiction, while originally not so well-received as its predecessor, ultimately found its place among loyal fans and continues to generate favorable approval. Like his previous work as a writer/director up until Jackie Brown, True Romance and Reservoir Dogs coming to mind in addition to PF, the movie's intended focus is as much on character, mood and atmosphere as it is on the plot. It's
not just what's happening and why; it's who's doing it and how--personality, method and demeanor a major part of telling the story. Take, for instance, the scene with Ordell and his partner Louis (De Niro) in a van just after learning Jackie's made off with the cash, the camera steadily resting on Ordell's still gaze for over a minute before he soberly exclaims "It's Jackie Brown". The audience knows what's going on (and likely what will be said in some capacity) all the way up until the words are spoken. But the way in which it's done, how the vocal exclamation subtly stamps the mood consummately underlying the film's overall concept, is truly entrancing. People who think Tarantino self-consciously tries to be cool or that he uses shock value to entertain--rampant profanity and violence a trademark--should look closer at his use of dialogue in scenes more secondary to the climax, how much more craftily those situations convey depth and meaning in contrast to hyped verbal confrontations or violent action sequences.
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