Uma Thurman

At dinner in Pulp Fiction (1994), Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace looks bored enough to make her companion work for her attention. John Travolta lets her set the pace, and she makes flirting feel like something she might stop doing without notice. We were delighted by the dance: their easy movement is a relief after Mia’s guarded conversation. Editor Sally Menke gives their exchanges room by holding the two-shots, and Thurman uses the time to keep Mia difficult to read.

That breakthrough followed early parts in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), but Mia is the useful starting point for understanding her screen manner. Betsy Heimann’s white shirt and black bob help fix Mia in the memory, while production designer David Wasco’s restaurant booths made from old cars threaten to distract from everyone sitting in them. Thurman keeps the scene from becoming a display of clothes and scenery. Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997), in which she plays Irene Cassini, takes her into science fiction before her return to Quentin Tarantino.

In Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), the Bride gets neither jokes nor speeches. Cinematographer Robert Richardson’s hard, clean lighting makes her yellow tracksuit easy to pick out, but Thurman supplies the physical effort that keeps us interested in the woman wearing it. She makes movement look as though it has to be forced out of an unwilling body. The minute spent willing her big toe to move is more persuasive than the swordplay: we can see the concentration and understand how much that small movement would mean.

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) gives her more time to speak and react, and we prefer it despite its excess length. Tarantino is the director who has made the fullest use of her, though the thin writing for the Bride in the first film leaves too much to Thurman. Robert Rodriguez and RZA’s spare guitar and trumpet work well in a film that also allows scenes to go quiet. Those quieter stretches give her expressions time to register, and she rewards the attention.

Later work includes the comedy and musical performance of The Producers (2005), as well as My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), which received poor reviews. That variety is worth noting, but it does not explain her appeal as clearly as those Tarantino performances. We would start with Pulp Fiction, then watch both halves of Kill Bill.