THE BRAVE ONE (2007) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Neil Jordan
Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews,
Mary Steenburgen, Nicky Katt, Jane Adams
Jodie Foster plays a public radio broadcaster who's out with her fiancé walking the dog in Central Park late one night when they're attacked by a gang of thugs. She's beaten to a pulp. He's beaten to death. The thugs even steal the dog. Jodie's wounds slowly heal, but psychologically, something has snapped. She's become somebody else. She buys a gun off the street and learns how to use it. Then she starts to go out again late at night, stalking the kinds of lowlife creeps the law never seems to catch up to, and blowing them away. It's like "Death Wish" with commando Jodie in the Charles Bronson role, but retribution isn't all that's going on here. As Foster's character changes to survive, and her view of the world grows darker, she has to accept and adapt to the person she's now become. The first time she uses her gun, on a guy who's just shot his wife and robbed a convenience store, the camera closes in on her face, which registers a queasy combination of panic, exhilaration and horror at what she's done. And the playful cat-and-mouse game between Foster and Terrence Howard as a police investigator suggests she's getting off on the risk of being caught. It's all pretty outlandish, but as a genre piece, it gets the job done, and Jodie, looking more androgynous than usual, shows once again she's an action star to be reckoned with: a woman with a brain, a heart, a grudge and a Glock. You don't want to mess with her, and you definitely don't want to steal her dog. That'll just make her mad. And she'll kick your ass.
