Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen
Review:
Neil Jordan's somber The
Brave One is a lot of
things. A reflective movie
about a crime victim's sense
of dislocation and isolation
from her own life following
a harrowing trauma, the film
will strike a chord with a
lot of people who have known
violence. The Brave One
is also a provocative drama
about the nature of justice,
a theme explored endlessly
in American movies that
typically find law
enforcement wanting. In
Jordan's film, however, the
conflict between instinctive
vigilantism and legal
protocols is approached with
more deliberateness and
complexity than usual.
Finally, despite its
seriousness of purpose,
The Brave One, to a
certain extent, is drearily
tethered to the old
atrocity-and-revenge genre,
bumping along to the
familiar, Death Wish-like
rhythms of an avenger
seeking successive conflicts
with bad guys he or she can
blow away...more
Extras: "I
Walk the City" featurette,
additional scenes.
The Brave One Release
Date: September 14, 2007 Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Director: Neil Jordan Screenwriter: Cynthia Mort, Neil Jordan Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen Genre: Psychological Thriller MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence, language and some sexuality) Official Website:
TheBraveOne.com
Plot Summary: New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life
that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a
brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move
past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down
the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public's
attention, and the city is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD
desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard)
hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the
right path, or if she is becoming the very thing she is trying to stop
EN 5 Second Review:
Jodie Foster makes nothing but watchable movies, that
said, this is not her best.
"Worth
watching for Foster's fiercely arresting performance." Lous Lumenick: NY Post
THE Central Park Jogger and Bernie Goetz meet "Death Wish"
in post-9/11 New York in "The Brave One," an awkward concept put over by
Jodie Foster's award-caliber performance and expert direction by Neil
Jordan...more
The
film tries for nuance but comes off like 'Death Wish' or a
sequel to 'Ms. 45.' Kenneth Turran: LA Times
Less a brave movie than a foolhardy one. Trapped in a no
man's land between seriousness and pulp trash, it plays like
a combination of Death Wish and The Hours. If
that sounds like an awkward fit, it is...more
Release
Date: September 14, 2007
EN 5 Second Review:
Jodie Foster makes nothing but watchable movies, that
said, this is not her best.