I wrote this review several years ago when the movie first came out, but thought I'd put it out here for anyone who might be curious and hasn't seen it.
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I just went to see the new Jodi Foster movie The Brave One yesterday afternoon with a girlfriend. I hadn’t heard of the movie until I read a review about in the auspicious Eugene Weekly, our local liberal rag. They didn’t love it so much. I thought it was a strange review because they kept trying to compare the character Foster played in this film with Iris from Taxi Driver (you know, the first Scorsese film, amazing, yet a whole ‘nuther story). Yeah, sure, they were both set in New York and they both involved reluctant, slightly disturbed, vigilante-types. But really, the two stories were radically different in one important aspect – their target audience. (Sorry, I tried to find this review, but can't seem to. It's been three years, after all.)
Despite the less-than-stellar review by the Weekly, I was drawn to the film for several reasons. First, I dig Jodi Foster, not least of all because of the character she played in Taxi Driver. She’s just got a hell of a lot of charisma and personal integrity if you ask me. She’s not a pop movie star, she’s got some class. I also love films about revenge, especially when the score is settled by women who won’t take it any more. Predictably, I loved Thelma & Louise, Enough, Girlfight, Elizabeth, and Million Dollar Baby. And I’m also one of those people that just enjoys watching a good bit of gore. This film didn’t disappoint.
So for the latter reason, this film is definitely going to appeal to women who are just pissed off and want to see a little real justice come their way before it’s too late to matter. Such a common failing of our justice system that thinks a court-order is going to keep a battering abuser away from his intended victim. In fact, this very scenario was typified in an early scene in the film where (SPOILER ALERT) a husband recently released from prison goes at his wife with a gun, screaming about how she’s not going to stop him from seeing his kids, and blows her away. How could a piece of paper help in that situation?
Sure, there were some corny, badly delivered lines that were more prose than real, gritty conversation, but that’s what you get when a film wants to make sure the audience is getting the message. Terence Howard gives a predictably elegant and sympathetic performance, and Foster is her usual understated self. It’s that quiet, internalized self-expressive tendency that makes the characters she plays so appealing – and makes it so much more shocking and gripping when those characters let loose. And she does plenty of letting loose in The Brave One.
I’ll have to concede that the ending was a bit on the fanstastic and never-gonna-happen side, but instead of making me perceive a potential condescension by director Neil Jordan, I kinda liked the fact that (MORE SPOILER) the bad guy’s got theirs, the cop realized justice isn’t always black-and-white, and the heroine didn’t have to die for her right to have her share of that said justice. In the end, the movie left me feeling a little hope for this fucked-up world.
Stayed tuned. Tomorrow I'll share my thoughts on the movie The Blindside. Or rather, I'll piggyback on the thoughts of someone who puts it much more elegantly than I would, Nine Deuce over at Rage Against the Manchine. Buckle your seat belts for this one folks, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
