The Brave One
the battle for truth, justice and box office gold
2007-09-14
By Sergio Mims

CAST: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Nicky Katt
Naveen Andrews, Carmen Ejogo, Mary Steenburgen
Zoe Kravitz
WRITTEN BY:
Roderick Taylor, Bruce Taylor and Cynthia Mort
DIRECTED BY:
Neil Jordan
RATED R
**1/2  

Despite its self-importance and Hollywood sheen, The Brave One is, in reality, nothing more than a remake of those cheesy Charles Bronson Death Wish movies he made between 1975 and 1985. Though The Brave One’s director’s Neil Jordan (Interview With A Vampire, Michael Collins, The Crying Game ) is a better director than Death Wish director Michael Winner, Winner’s blunt, sledgehammer style is better suited to the material.

At any rate, the premise is the same: A regular Joe has the ground pulled out from under him when some vicious, criminal, low life scum kills his family or close friend in the progress of a crime. After the criminal justice system fails to prosecute the bad guys because of some legal technicality, the regular Joe takes matters into his own hands and tracks down the punks to blow them to kingdom come. This time around, it’s not craggy faced Bronson but two time Oscar winner Jodie Foster following in his blood-soaked footsteps.

Foster plays an NPR-type radio show host engaged to a dashing young doctor (Andrews from TV’s Lost). One night while walking their dog through Central Park, they are accosted and brutally beaten by a gang of thugs. Andrews dies from his injuries and Foster ends up in a temporary coma.

After recovering and struggling mightily to conquer her fears, Foster prowls the streets as a vigilante searching for revenge against the men who ruined her life, splattering any criminal who has the misfortunate to get in her way. Judging from the film’s body count there are a lot of them in New York. In between her vigilante forays through Manhattan, Foster plays savior, rescuing poor abused unfortunates like the hooker played by Zoe Kravitz (Lenny and Lisa Bonet’s daughter). In the meantime, a detective (Howard) with issues of his own including a recently failed marriage and career frustrations, investigates the killings committed by Foster which eventually leads them to form a strange alliance.

It shouldn’t be surprising that Foster gives a tough, totally believable performance as the wronged, psychologically tortured anti-heroine; convincingly cold blooded once she goes out for murderous revenge. One could argue that her performance is more calculated for an obvious attempt at an Oscar nomination, but no matter. She’s solid and proves again that she’s one of the best actresses working in films today.
Still, the film works overtime to avoid any charges of racism, making Foster’s character an equal opportunity vigilante having her knock off blacks, white trash, suspicious foreigners, Hispanics and filthy rich yuppie scum to show that her character doesn’t discriminate.

In the rather thankless role as the dedicated, burned out cop, Howard does a good job, though he is beginning to show that he’s an actor of limited means. Coming off more successfully is Nikky Katt as Howard’s partner who provides what little comic relief there is in the film with his dry, deadpan line readings.

Director Jordan does create for the film a suitably gloomy, doom-laden atmosphere which effectively adds to the sinister tone. But, The Brave One is a violent action film that doesn’t want to be a violent action film. Stuffed with moody apprehension, deep thoughts and painful angst  the movie almost buckles under the weight. It bends over backwards trying to be a film of earth shattering importance, but it's an impossible goal; there isn’t that much to grab on to.

In the end, The Brave One works best when it sticks to the vigilante formula. Old Charlie Bronson never made any claim for pretense. He just aimed his gun and fired.

Sergio Mims covers all things film from the city that works, Chicago.