Starring: Jodi Foster, Terrance Howard, Naveen Andrews
Directed By: Neil Jordan
Rating: R
The psychological thriller, The Brave One will go down in my
book as Jodi Foster"s best effort since Silence of the Lambs. Her taught dramatic performance of a person
wanting justice after being brutally beaten gets you involved in the storyline
and holds you captive till the very end.
If you love crime stories that lead you to the dark side of life, then
take a walk with Jodi and see how it feels to be obsessed with a brave and
sometimes fool hearted sense of justice.
Erica’s
(Foster) the host of “Street Walk”, a unique radio talk show with the
sounds of the city of New York
in the background. Day after day she
walks the street recording anything that catches her ear. She loves New York and feels safe in any neighborhood.
Her fiancé David (Andrews) is in the medical field keeping New Yorkers
alive. Taking the dog for a walk in the
park relieves their stress from a laborious workday, but on one such evening,
they head down a path that changes their lives forever—one temporary and the
other permanently.
The movie asks the
question, What would you do if a brutal act tore your life to shreds in a
matter of minutes? Erica’s choice forms
the basic hero/retribution plot that takes her through the darkest alleys of New York, not to
hunt the sounds of the city, but a hunt for much bigger game.
Although the plot sounds a little
familiar, Death Wish 1-5, Foster’s character makes this killing spree look more
like a superhero trying to make Gotham safe,
rather than a revenge story. The Brave One poses the issue, ‘no mater how brutal the crime, does it justify taking the
law into your own hands?’
Screenwriters Roderick and Bruce Taylor justify this
by providing you with a platform to imagine what it would be like to retaliate
and take that to the level of defending others.
Jodi Foster gives an amazing
performance as Erica who believes everyone has a dark side within, ready
to come out the moment you get tromped on.
Foster shows us her dark side as Erica, and it’s very scary. In terrific support of her role, Terrance Howard
plays Detective Mercer who gets assigned to a case in which he thinks there is a
serial killer on the loose. His
depiction of a cold, calculating detective is extremely good, adding to the
credibility of the plot.
There are some very
realistic violent scenes, off-color language, and brief nudity. You also may
not want to see this one alone.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Extremely good, intense film that’s
brilliantly acted and thought-provoking.
Newer news items:
Older news items:
|
