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The Brave One

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The Brave One (2007)

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Reviews Counted:33

Fresh:13

Rotten:20

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 The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else...something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night...something that Erica does not even recognize in herself.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.

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Reviews for The Brave One

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1 - 11 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
10/19/07
Sydney Morning Herald
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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

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
10/05/07
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
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Neil Jordan ought to be doing more challenging material than this overblown, overwrought thriller that has only obvious points to make about the moral swamp that is urban vigilantism.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
09/28/07
Andrew Pulver
Andrew Pulver
Guardian [UK]
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It wants to be a modern Taxi Driver; it manages to be the new Falling Down, with Foster as fierce as ever.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
09/28/07
William Thomas
William Thomas
Empire Magazine
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I think The Brave One could have been a better film with a different ending, but it’s still a well-crafted, thought-provoking story with outstanding performances.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
09/18/07
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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Foster does her best with a flawed story whose ending rings even less true than the rest of it.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
09/14/07
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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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.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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Psychological suspense is what makes The Brave One spellbinding. The movie doesn't dine out on action scenes, but regards with great curiosity how these two people will end up.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Brave One, though well cast and smoothly directed, is just as crude and ugly as you want it to be.

comment 1 Comment
09/13/07
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

You may hate yourself for yielding to the expertise of the manipulation, but the vicarious thrill of The Brave One is the sense of pulling your own trigger on pure evil and watching the bullet tear through.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
09/13/07
Stephen Hunter
Stephen Hunter
Washington Post
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Foster’s pistol-packing turn as an avenging dark angel nearly sustains director Neil Jordan’s grim vigilante drama through a string of implausibilities and occasionally trite psychological framing devices, with deft support from Terrence Howard.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/28/07
Justin Chang
Justin Chang
Variety
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1 - 11 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
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