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Bookmark this pageThe Brave One (2007)
Director: Neil Jordan
Synopsis
Jodie Foster stars as a woman who takes justice into her own hands after her fiancé (Naveen Andrews) is beaten to death by thugs. Terrence Howard is the detective on her trail.
Movie review
From Time Out London
A walk in Central Park ends in intensive care for New York talk radio host Jodie Foster, and the morgue for her fiancé, when they’re attacked by happy-slapping thugs. A slow recovery is her first step back to life, but coping with the regret and her anger is another matter. Sold an illicit revolver, she’s soon salving her pain by blowing away a string of would-be muggers and sexual deviants, but is she venting every paranoid city-dweller’s unsuppressed rage, or simply overwhelmed by psychosis? Director Neil Jordan leaves the audience to answer that question, while the script’s other main character, embattled NYPD detective Terrence Howard, is certainly none the wiser, since it’s hardly reasonable to link this slight, highly literate female broadcaster with the latest serial slayings to hit the Big Apple.
Beautifully played, the tantalising accretion of mutual understanding between Foster and Howard is one of the film’s strengths, yet the plot machinations required to lever it into position would overstretch credibility in the clunkiest straight-to-video action flick. In rational terms, the story’s just not tenable, but accepting it as a provocative conceit, perhaps even an urban parable – given Jordan’s previous form with ‘The Crying Game’ and ‘The Butcher Boy’ – and it presents the challengingly unresolved notion of being subsumed by one’s inner monster. Foster’s remarkable performance makes the transformation palpably irreversible and though the film would carry more thematic heft if it made better sense, it’s still more hauntingly visualised and morally troubling than many a slick production-line offering.
Author: Trevor Johnston
Time Out London Issue 1936: September 26-October 2 2007
User reviews of this film
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- Steve said...
- Posted on Sep 05 2008 23:57 A good film, with some really excellent acting by the two leads. Its certainly not a straight ahead genre movie and motivations were well dealt with. There was something about the structure that troubled me a little. It is hard to put my finger on, but at points things were sign posted a little too strongly I felt. The timing of her shooting the crime king-pin and the inclusion of the elevator sound being one example. Perhaps Neil Jordan felt the need for a wider audience, I don't know. But with the leads doing such good work a more humanist approach could have made this great. I would have loved to seen Kieślowski shoot this!
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- Jayson said...
- Posted on Oct 12 2007 14:53 Surprisingly good! I enjoyed this film very much, but didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I am not a Jodie Foster fan and I thought it would be similar to the usual Hollywood schlock of this genre, but it was different and the ending was really different to what I was expecting. I would recommend this film. It is thought provoking.
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- Robert said...
- Posted on Oct 03 2007 15:54 I enjoyed this movie and Jodie is a great actress..its a bit slow at times but overall its good and recommendable.
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- evelyne said...
- Posted on Oct 03 2007 10:55 excellent film and excellent actors which dill with growing violence in metropolis and surviving characters of small and abandoned citizen + unsocial united states
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- Vanessa said...
- Posted on Oct 01 2007 12:52 Excellent film with harrowing scenes. Foster is a believable character out for justice. The ending is spot on. A must see film.
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- Paul said...
- Posted on Sep 29 2007 23:44 Tedious Death Wish re-hash with Jodie struggling to impress , what for the video, if it is a wet nght and you are bored then this is the film for you, especially if you like guns etc...
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Cast & crew
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Jane Adams, Nicky Katt full cast
Rated: 18
Duration: 122 mins
UK Release: Sep 28 2007
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