The Brave One

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.