jackie brown entered theaters with little fanfare and a lot of expectation . even though advance publicity on this one was fairly limited , the audiences waited for the showings with heightened anticipation . this is , after all , the first movie quentin tarantino has directed since the highly touted pulp fiction . to say he has been inactive in between would be to tell a falsehood , since he has been involved in such projects as destiny turns on the radio , desperado , four rooms , and from dusk 'til dawn . he was also called in at the last minute to help punch up the screenplay for crimson tide . ( i'm willing to wager the debate over which silver surfer is the only true silver surfer was penned by him . ) tarantino contributed on and off screen to these films , but never took the director's helm . nearly four years since gaining notoriety on the hollywood scene and making john travolta a star once more , tarantino returns with a film he can call his own . the film opens up with an homage to the graduate , with jackie brown ( pam grier ) on one of those airport people movers as the credits are displayed in front of her . jackie is a flight attendant for air cabo , which flies back and fourth between los angeles and cabo san lucas . this makes jackie a convenient cash courier for gun dealer ordell robbi ( samuel l . jackson ) who is currently keeping his money stashed in mexico . however , while bringing fifty thousand dollars back into the u . s . for ordell , jackie is apprehended by fbi agent mark dargus ( michael bowen ) and atf agent ray nicolet ( michael keaton ) , who catch her not only with the money , but with a bonus of a couple of ounces of illicit drugs . jackie didn't know they were in the package with the cash , but that's of no consequence to the authorities , who threaten jackie with a couple of years hard time if convicted . of course , dargus and nicolet are just using the sentence to get jackie to turn over the big fish , ordell . ordell uses honest bail bondsman max cherry ( robert forster ) to get jackie out of jail , but while max is immediately attracted to her , jackie is more concerned about her immediate safety , since ordell killed the last one of his operatives who got picked up by the police . sure enough , ordell shows up at jackie's apartment that evening and tries to silence jackie for good , but she " borrows " max's pistol and manages to turn the tables on ordell . instead of closing the irony circle and relocating a bullet from the pistol's chamber to ordell's head , jackie proposes a deal . since ordell wants to get his money out of mexico , jackie will get back up to her old tricks and be a courier for him once more , but this time for a more substantial fee : fifteen percent of ordell's half million dollars . with a gun in his face , how can ordell not agree ? by itself , this premise might have been interesting enough to carry the film . however , we are also introduced to a number of double crosses which make us pay attention and think . jackie claims to be bringing the money in for ordell , but she's also making a deal with the feds as well as with max . the film throws us off every once in a while by leading us to believe the deal we thought was authentic is actually a sham , but it is in no way done to the extent that we feel jerked around . instead , it's actually a nice departure from the predictability which is prevalent in so many of today's movies . at least this film has a little imagination . most of the performances in jackie brown are above par . pam grier , of whom i had never taken notice before , plays jackie with a mix of confidence and vulnerability which makes her character believable . samuel l . jackson has a kind of mesmerizing quality about him as he handles himself in situations where you know he is in total control . robert forster is thoroughly likable because he comes across as such an honest guy , trying to do his best . . never mind that he belongs to a profession where sneaking into a guy's apartment to zap him with a stun gun is simply a matter of course . he's just so down-to-earth , the nature of his job really doesn't occur to us , even when we're shown him bringing a handcuffed woman to prison , or when we see the tools of his trade . in supporting roles are robert de niro as louis gara , a recently paroled friend of ordell's , and bridget fonda as melanie , one of the girls ordell keeps around town . unfortunately , de niro is basically wasted as his lines are few and far between , and then they are mostly clipped sentences . in this film , he's not really de niro , but stereotypical de niro , uttering things like , " little bit , " and " pretty much . " fonda , on the other hand , plays the slightly spaced-out melanie with satisfactory relish and cuteness , such that even when she is annoying louis , we are taking her side . as is characteristic of any film in which tarantino has had a hand , the dialog is quick and snappy . it grabs our attention and is actually interesting , and in many respects , this makes jackie brown a film which needs few visuals ; the lines are a form of art in and amongst themselves . don't count tarantino out when it comes to using the camera , however . there's a scene where max is unwittingly watching a dry run of a money exchange , and he's not really sure what's happening , but by composing the scene just so , his realization of what's going on is felt simultaneously by the audience . we look at the screen and think , " gee , that's clever , " and then think the same thing about how the film induced us into that wonderful feeling of catching on . although tarantino isn't afraid to drag out a shot for dramatic effect , it unfortunately works to varying degrees in this film . there are shots where a character is simply driving , and we watch this person and somehow get an idea of what is going on in his or her head . this is a tribute to both direction and acting . however , there is at least one other scene where we follow jackie through a mall , and she is looking for something ; desperately looking for something . we get the idea of the frantic nature of her search , but we follow her for so long that we end up not really caring about what she's looking for , but instead hoping she'll just stop . overall , viewing jackie brown is time spent well . some flap has already been made about the language used in the film , but it's really not much worse than many of the other movies out there today . in fact , one might even be able to say that the way in which these " offensive " words are employed almost cause them to parody themselves and therefore transcend their own offensiveness . go see the film and see what i mean .
