Anchored by Terrence Howard (Crash, Hustle & Flow, and many, many others) and Jodie Foster (...Contact?), The Brave One is a new take on the vigilante genre of action dramas. It's the story of a woman who has her life, and her sense of safety, stolen from her one brutal night. Her boyfriend murdered, her German Shepard dognapped, this formerly confident and secure radio show host is suddenly transformed into a mourning, fearful woman who can't even leave her house. And then she buys a gun. Once she finally manages to get out of her apartment and gains that small, metal piece of security, she begins a transformation. She used to be oblivious to the darker side of the city, but after the attack, she becomes a citizen of it.
Much of this movie is split between two themes. One, the transformation of a normal woman into a cold, but shaken creature of the night. Two, a cop facing a similar feeling of helplessness and abandonment but for totally different reasons. Somehow they find each other in a world gone mad and find a bit of comfort, perfectly platonic but much needed comfort. How it ends isn't really a surprise, but I think it's well done, and Howard plays his conflicted morality off extremely well.
Foster does a good job, though frankly I think the best performance of the show is easily Howard. Really the biggest thing Foster has to do is control her voice (which is surprisingly inviting with a smoky, veteran flavor), and have a steely cold gaze on her face, which she does. I don't want to take credit away from her though, she had a line to walk, between a little bit crazy and being terrorized, and she stepped over that line several times. Howard on the other hand is very, very good at looking strong while sounding vulnerable, which I think summarizes his character well. The man is hurting from a recent divorce, stymied at his job by a criminal he can't nail down, and looking for some satisfaction, and relief. Over the course of the movie, as evidence starts to mount on Foster, he begins to face a growing moral conflict over what to do, and I think his acting of a man who has to walk this moral line is compelling at the very least.
This is a good one to see, and I won't ruin the ending (I have more to say but it'll stay in a spoiler warned section below) but it might not be your cup of tea. There's not a ton of Die Hard style action, it's really mostly cold blooded killing, and other than that it's really just walking and talking, a lot of it. The one thing I really didn't like about the movie was the character of Josai. I suppose the actress, Ene Oloja does a well enough job playing the role, but come on, an African immigrant woman who can empathize with Foster because she knows about war and who previously was cold and distant but all of a sudden displays her nursing and philosophical knowledge at the drop of a hat? I didn't like the character, and I thought she was a far too convenient crutch. But meh, I can live with it.
SPOILER
When you distill the plot, it's about a woman who is made a victim, never wants to be a victim again, and then goes looking for trouble. She's out for revenge against those who hurt her, and takes out a lot of other bad guys along the way who have nothing to do with her. The other main character, a cop who wants to get his man but can't doing things the legal way, finds out that his new friend is the killer, and he can either help her, stop her, or ignore it. He chooses to help. Frankly when you distill the plot it sounds like the distilled plot of cult favorite Boondock Saints. Only the music isn't as good (though I did like the repetitive Sara McLaughlin song), the action isn't as good, there's no comedy (whereas Boondock Saints is hysterical at all the right times), and a limited cast. So I guess my REAL recommendation? Go watch Boondock Saints. But that's not totally fair, this movie really has a much different tone. In Saints, the main characters never felt victimized, they felt galvanized. Foster plays a woman who brutally tries to retake hold of her life, and often has bouts of doubt that lead to some irrational emotional outbursts. So yes, distilled they are quite similar, they take different tracks entirely. Perhaps I shouldn't have made the comparison at all, but being part of the same genre, Saints is the movie you buy and watch over and over. The Brave One is the one you should see once in the theater, or at least definitely not miss when it comes out to rent, but you could easily save the money and not buy it.
PS. Though Naveen Andrews really has only a bit part in the movie, I liked those parts. The director does some eye catching artsy stuff after he's beaten to death and she's in the hospital, contrasting a lovemaking scene to the two of them being worked on by ER doctors. I know it sounds weird, but it's quite emotionally stirring on screen. Subsequen scenes where the Sarah McLaughlin plays what you'd have to call their love theme are also very tender, and though it's all rather heated (I mean, they were engaged and all), it's a very good window into what her life with him was life, and gave as a very real understanding of what it is exactly that she'd lost.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
3:10 to Yuma
So I've finally managed to make my way back to the movies after a couple weeks away.
I thought it was a fantastic movie. Bale and Crowe did very well indeed. Logan Lerman, who played Bale's son did a good job I think. His character was skeptical of his father, and much of the movie was as much about his views towards his father as it was about the actual train to Yuma. And from the intensity in his gaze to the quivering in his hand when he held the gun on Crowe, I think he was extremely convincing. It was at least as good as your average western, though I have to say it probably had the most realistic looking bullet hits I've seen in a western, they didn't pull any punches.
Frankly, I think the most surprising performance of the movie was Ben Foster as Charlie Prince. The last fewthings I saw him in, X-Men, Hostel, The Punisher, and Flash Forward were all either child or teen oriented roles. Flash Forward has him as this awkward skinny kid, Hostage has him as a greasy, very, VERY disturbed psycho (and he died btw in that movie in what I'd call the best imitation of a classic Hollywood scene I've seen in quite some time, watch it to see what I mean). His role in the Punisher was as a helpless dweller of a hovel who needed protecting. And of course many will remember his role in X-Men as Warren Worthington III, but let's be honest, he was playing a teenager in a bit part. He was totally different in this. Ruthless and cunning, and very much graduated from the kid he usually plays, he was one of the best villains I've seen in quite some time. I really got into it, and I think without that character, the movie wouldn't have been half of what it was. He was the counterweight to the conflict going on between Bale and Crowe, who while good, really didn't do anything new. Bale did what Bale does, he speaks softly, slowly, very little, and he stares a lot. And Crowe I think played the role he generally plays too. Also speaking somewhat softly, clever, a little alluring though not necessarily in a romantic way (though there's an obvious confusion in whether the outlaw is in fact romantic or not). Kudos to all of them, but most of all to Foster, as his performance was a surprise. Alan Tudyk was also very enjoyable in his small role as the doctor, but for an expanded view on his role, you'll have to go below the fold for a spoiler.
A short word on the two women of the movie. Vinessa Shaw played Emmy Nelson, who was almost useless as a character. She was there to provide the seed for what would eventually be the growth of Crowe's humanity in the movie. But as a character in her own right she was useless. Shaw did what she had to do, but it was otherwise not noteworthy. Gretchen Mol on the other hand played Alice Evans, Danny's (Bale) wife. Bale and her worked well together. Clearly she loved her husband and her family, and their well being was foremost in her mind, but there was a clear conflict between what Danny saw as his role as a father and provider, and with how Danny felt Alice felt towards him. Their relationship didn't see a ton of screen time, but in the short time they had, it was like we understood them entirely. I credit that to good writing and better acting.
Spoiler ahead
First of all, Alan Tudyk. Tudyk had a very good performance. I was almost hoping to see him play a gunslinger rather than the role he played. I like to see actors try new things (it's why I like Viggo Mortensen so much), and frankly I thought he played what Wash would have been if he'd been alive in the 1860's. He was a doctor, but more, he was the voice of reason and morality, the counterweight to the baser human instincts towards violence. And it was a bit sad to see him die almost the same way he died in Serenity. "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I-" BAM! and "Did you guys see how I hit that guy with a shovel back-" BAM! A little intentional tugging on our heartstrings, and I suppose his character had to die, didn't he? Frankly I don't even know why the hell he was still there. The doctor never wanted to go to begin with, he only went because the Pinkerton that Crowe tossed off the cliff, Byron McElroy went, and he was injured. But once the McElroy got tossed off the cliff, wouldn't the doctor have gone back to town? He wasn't a gunhand, for heaven's sake, they proved that when he was doing his best to shoot the brush to pieces outside Bale's house. But it still worked as it was, and Tudyk was of course, great, so I can't really complain. I really didn't think that he was necessary at that point, and they could have sent him back to town, leaving me much more satisfied. He wasn't the real story, or the real reason why Danny was risking his life to put Wade (Crowe) behid bars. It was all about his family, and especially his son. They didn't need icing on that cake.
Luke Wilson was a big surprise, I didn't know he was supposed to be in the movie at all. I recognized him immediately, and thought his scene was a great chance for Danny to, if not bond, certainly flex his moral muscle when he freed Wade with the others. You could tell it wasn't just about the money for him. This was dual purpose: He needed Wade for the money for his family, but he also wanted to show his son how important doing the right thing was.
End Spoilers
In conclusion, it was a great movie, and if this is what we can expect from the future of Westerns (if the genre makes a comeback at all), then I'm really looking forward to seeing what Hollywood has to offer. And I'm looking forward to Ben Foster's next movie. I'd never pegged him as that kind of actor before, rough and fierce, or I should say, as someone who could in any way carry a movie. But now (though his role for 30 Days of Night doesn't look totally compelling), I'll be paying more attention.
I thought it was a fantastic movie. Bale and Crowe did very well indeed. Logan Lerman, who played Bale's son did a good job I think. His character was skeptical of his father, and much of the movie was as much about his views towards his father as it was about the actual train to Yuma. And from the intensity in his gaze to the quivering in his hand when he held the gun on Crowe, I think he was extremely convincing. It was at least as good as your average western, though I have to say it probably had the most realistic looking bullet hits I've seen in a western, they didn't pull any punches.
Frankly, I think the most surprising performance of the movie was Ben Foster as Charlie Prince. The last fewthings I saw him in, X-Men, Hostel, The Punisher, and Flash Forward were all either child or teen oriented roles. Flash Forward has him as this awkward skinny kid, Hostage has him as a greasy, very, VERY disturbed psycho (and he died btw in that movie in what I'd call the best imitation of a classic Hollywood scene I've seen in quite some time, watch it to see what I mean). His role in the Punisher was as a helpless dweller of a hovel who needed protecting. And of course many will remember his role in X-Men as Warren Worthington III, but let's be honest, he was playing a teenager in a bit part. He was totally different in this. Ruthless and cunning, and very much graduated from the kid he usually plays, he was one of the best villains I've seen in quite some time. I really got into it, and I think without that character, the movie wouldn't have been half of what it was. He was the counterweight to the conflict going on between Bale and Crowe, who while good, really didn't do anything new. Bale did what Bale does, he speaks softly, slowly, very little, and he stares a lot. And Crowe I think played the role he generally plays too. Also speaking somewhat softly, clever, a little alluring though not necessarily in a romantic way (though there's an obvious confusion in whether the outlaw is in fact romantic or not). Kudos to all of them, but most of all to Foster, as his performance was a surprise. Alan Tudyk was also very enjoyable in his small role as the doctor, but for an expanded view on his role, you'll have to go below the fold for a spoiler.
A short word on the two women of the movie. Vinessa Shaw played Emmy Nelson, who was almost useless as a character. She was there to provide the seed for what would eventually be the growth of Crowe's humanity in the movie. But as a character in her own right she was useless. Shaw did what she had to do, but it was otherwise not noteworthy. Gretchen Mol on the other hand played Alice Evans, Danny's (Bale) wife. Bale and her worked well together. Clearly she loved her husband and her family, and their well being was foremost in her mind, but there was a clear conflict between what Danny saw as his role as a father and provider, and with how Danny felt Alice felt towards him. Their relationship didn't see a ton of screen time, but in the short time they had, it was like we understood them entirely. I credit that to good writing and better acting.
Spoiler ahead
First of all, Alan Tudyk. Tudyk had a very good performance. I was almost hoping to see him play a gunslinger rather than the role he played. I like to see actors try new things (it's why I like Viggo Mortensen so much), and frankly I thought he played what Wash would have been if he'd been alive in the 1860's. He was a doctor, but more, he was the voice of reason and morality, the counterweight to the baser human instincts towards violence. And it was a bit sad to see him die almost the same way he died in Serenity. "I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I-" BAM! and "Did you guys see how I hit that guy with a shovel back-" BAM! A little intentional tugging on our heartstrings, and I suppose his character had to die, didn't he? Frankly I don't even know why the hell he was still there. The doctor never wanted to go to begin with, he only went because the Pinkerton that Crowe tossed off the cliff, Byron McElroy went, and he was injured. But once the McElroy got tossed off the cliff, wouldn't the doctor have gone back to town? He wasn't a gunhand, for heaven's sake, they proved that when he was doing his best to shoot the brush to pieces outside Bale's house. But it still worked as it was, and Tudyk was of course, great, so I can't really complain. I really didn't think that he was necessary at that point, and they could have sent him back to town, leaving me much more satisfied. He wasn't the real story, or the real reason why Danny was risking his life to put Wade (Crowe) behid bars. It was all about his family, and especially his son. They didn't need icing on that cake.
Luke Wilson was a big surprise, I didn't know he was supposed to be in the movie at all. I recognized him immediately, and thought his scene was a great chance for Danny to, if not bond, certainly flex his moral muscle when he freed Wade with the others. You could tell it wasn't just about the money for him. This was dual purpose: He needed Wade for the money for his family, but he also wanted to show his son how important doing the right thing was.
End Spoilers
In conclusion, it was a great movie, and if this is what we can expect from the future of Westerns (if the genre makes a comeback at all), then I'm really looking forward to seeing what Hollywood has to offer. And I'm looking forward to Ben Foster's next movie. I'd never pegged him as that kind of actor before, rough and fierce, or I should say, as someone who could in any way carry a movie. But now (though his role for 30 Days of Night doesn't look totally compelling), I'll be paying more attention.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)