Few writers have had less luck on-screen than Elmore Leonard. While everything gets optioned almost before it's out of his typewriter, on the odd occasion something gets made it is, virtually without exception, an embarrassment. Until now. In the unlikely hands of Addams Family helmer Sonnenfeld, Leonard's best novel becomes his best screen adaptation to date.

The reason is obvious - Elmore Leonard books are never about plot. They have plots, they have stories, but ones grown organically from their characters. Previous screenplays have focused exclusively on the other stuff - the plot-stuff - thinking they could just rewrite the talking in-between. With the exception of Abel Ferrara's confused but well cast Cat Chaser (and possibly Frankenheimer's rarely seen 52 Pick-Up) it never even gets close to working. With Get Shorty Scott Frank's script has the sense simply to dramatise whole chunks of Leonard's novel and the results, if not revelatory, are at least impressive.

Chili Palmer (the inevitable John Travolta) is small-time Mafia from Miami who comes to Los Angeles after a dry cleaner fakes his death in a plane wreck insurance scam. A film buff, within minutes of meeting another debtor, schlock producer Harry Zimm (the always reliable Gene Hackman), Chili finds himself happily pitched into the industry, using Harry's contacts and his own grasp of underworld business technique.

While the black-suited, super-sharp Travolta is excellent (it's hard to think of anyone else for the part) the chief joys are to be found in support. Delroy Lindo's petty drug dealer with investments in Zimm's next feature is terrific, and Michael Mann regular Dennis Farina's violent, arrogant, dim Mr. Semi-Big is a foul-mouthed, pastel-shaded delight. The original book was written as revenge for being kicked around Hollywood by a prevaricating Dustin Hoffman, and Danny DeVito's sincerely vacuous, twice-nominated mega-star speaks for itself. There are a couple of neat, uncredited cameos from Bette Midler and Harvey Keitel.

The only weak casting comes with Rene Russo's underwritten superannuated scream queen. Women are often the highlight of Leonard's novels, but here Russo feels bolted onto this slick Cadillac like an extra tail fin.

Sonnenfeld is a workman more than an artist and, coupled with Peter Larkin's garish production design, flattens many of the book's spikes, reducing some of Leonard's sleaze to mere trash; less black comedy than a very dark grey. It's funny and it's sassy (a cool score by Jim Jarmusch actor/composer John Lurie) and it's funny. It aims unashamedly for a pulp fictional crowd (lest anyone forget, Tarantino owes a huge debt to Leonard) and has the US box office receipts to prove it hits all its targets.

What the Elmore Leonard devotee might want though is a little less sass and a little more of the Rotweiller-bite George Armitage managed in bringing Charles Willeford's Miami Blues to film. With Get Shorty the violence and the chat are undeniably entertaining, but Armitage gave to Willeford the neon-lit humour and honest cruelty contemporary crime demands. Then again, no one went to see that little gem, so who knows in the end?