Powerful themes, intense emotions and a faultless performance from Jodie Foster are central to Neil Jordan's film, yet I have a fundamental problem with the story's morals, condoning violence, revenge and the protagonist taking the law into her own hands
The Brave One (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:178
Fresh:77
Rotten:101
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Magnetic by between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can't quite compensate for The Brave One's problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Justice, Thriller, New York City, Revenge, Theatrical Release
US Box Office: $36,765,734
Synopsis: For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the... For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show "Street Walk." At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiance David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it. Though Erica's broken body heals, deeper wounds remain--the devastation of losing David and, even more overwhelming, a suffocating fear that haunts her every step. The city streets she had once loved to roam, even places that had been warm and familiar, now feel strange and threatening. When the fear finally becomes too much to bear, Erica makes a fateful decision to arm herself against it. The gun in her hand becomes a tangible way to protect herself from an intangible enemy...or so she thinks. The first time she shoots someone, it is kill or be killed. The second time is also in self-defense...or did she make a choice not to take herself out of harm's way? The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else...something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night...something that Erica does not even recognize in herself. Stories of an anonymous vigilante grip the city, and NYPD detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) becomes increasingly determined to track down the killer. As he pieces together the clues, the evidence begins to point not to a guy with a gun...but a woman with a grudge. With Mercer closing in and her own conscience trying her, Erica must decide whether her quest for some form of justice, and even vengeance, is truly the right path, or if she has become the very thing she is hunting. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster ("The Silence of the Lambs," "The Accused") and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") star in "The Brave One." The film is directed by Academy Award winner Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") and produced by Joel Silver ("The Matrix" trilogy, "V For Vendetta") and Susan Downey ("Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"). The main cast also includes Naveen Andrews (TV's "Lost," "The English Patient") as David, Erica's fiance; Nicky Katt ("Grindhouse") as Mercer's partner, Detective Vitale; and Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen ("Melvin and Howard") as Carol, Erica's boss at the radio station. Jordan directed "The Brave One" from a screenplay by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort, story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor. Herbert W. Gains, Jodie Foster, Dana Goldberg and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. The behind-the-scenes creative team included Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot ("A River Runs Through It"), marking his fourth collaboration with Jordan, production designer Kristi Zea ("The Departed"), Jordan's longtime editor Tony Lawson ("Michael Collins," "The End of the Affair"), costume designer Catherine Thomas ("Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2") and Oscar-nominated composer Dario Marianelli ("Pride & Prejudice"). "The Brave One" is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production. "The Brave One" has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence, language and some sexuality. --© Warner Bros [More]
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Mary Steenburgen
Director: Neil Jordan
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor, Cynthia Mort
Story: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Producer: Joel Silver, Susan Downey
Composer: Dario Marianelli
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Brave One
Foster’s moments of quality drive home how shaky and inconsistent this vigilante drama is. Want something to avenge? How about the way it fails to live up to the sum of its reputable talents. Now that’s criminal…
As you’d expect, the talented Foster and Howard clearly relish sinking their teeth into a pair of well-rounded parts, their relationship teetering between cop and suspect, and the possibility of a romance.
As with all revenge movies, it simply provides its thrills by bumping off the bad guys.
Be care of the bait and switch. The film flip-flops from start to finish between a heart film with a vigilante and a vigilante film with a heart.
The Brave One has opened the fall movie season with a bang, indeed with a lot of bang, bang, bangs. Don’t miss it.
Jodie Foster and director Neil Jordan shift the genre to the murky left, where right and wrong are not so black and white.
The performers, however, almost make us forget the problems with the script. Foster and Howard are a riveting pair.
With a title that suggests the start of an epic poem or perhaps a fairy tale, The Brave One is a startling achievement for stars Jodie Foster and Terrance Howard, and yet another notch in the growing artistic oeuvre of Neil Jordan.
The Brave One feels like a superhero movie, charting the familiar story of an unsuspecting everywoman who discovers one day that a gun gives her special powers to right wrongs and uphold justice.
Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard deliver unforgettable performances that elevate this movie to more than a revenge film.
As its blandly heroic title forecasts, "The Brave One" is a revenge fantasy that floats like a narrative helium balloon waiting to find its ceiling.
In that moment, the movie changes too, from a subjective contemplation of her grief and loss to an erratic vigilante pic.
...one of the most compelling and flat-out exciting revenge thrillers to come along in quite some time.
It is tough and challenging and twists and turns in ways that are not expected or obvious or easy.
What you can't deny is Foster's expertise at mixing vulnerability with an inner rage that half excuses what she is doing.
My one complaint about this otherwise excellent film involves the ending, which doesn't ring true to me.
Latest News for The Brave One
February 04, 2008:
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