The Brave One DVD > Reviews > Jodie gets tough.

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Interesting plot, good acting .
Disadvantages:	None .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This is an edited review, as I need to get my spelling correct.

I always forget how good an actress Jodie Foster is, and when I saw that Virgin movies were showing a film with Jodie and Terence Howard (little known actor) and directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa) my wife and I thought, this might be good.

Basic Story:
I will try not to spoil the viewing for you, but I do need to give you a short synopsis. Jodie plays a radio host called Erica Bain. She lives in an upmarket New York apartment, has a loving fiance who is a doctor, attends art galleries, takes the dog for walks in Central Park, all in all, lives a pretty nice life.

One summer evening she and her fiance, David (Naveen Andrews), go for a long walk with their dog in the park when they are confronted by a gang of thugs who are intent on robbing, beating (and filming the attack) them. What follows is a mercifully short, but extremely violent scene where David ends up being killed and Erica is beaten into a coma. Here we see a really interesting piece of quite innovative cinematography, as Erica is being treated and having her body checked for injuries, her clothes removed, we see flashbacks of her intimacy with David, which is clearly her beaten brain trying to cope.

She wakes 3 weeks later to realise that her fiance is dead and has already been buried. Traumatized, she cannot sleep well, is scared to leave her apartment and is unable to do much.

Erica buys a gun for protection and one night finds herself in a convenience store and witnesses a man killing his wife, who works there, he then tries to kill Erica, who shoots him in self defence and is then amazed at how easy she found it.

What follows is a tale of vigilantiism as she puts herself in dangerous situations deliberately and the The City of New York is gripped by the tales of this avenging vigilante, whilst Erica clearly despises herself for her acts, yet is compulsed to continue, this is no ordinary vigilante tale, she even tries to give herself up. She also returns to work at the radio station, even hosting a phone in about the vigilante.

NYPD Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard) is trying to catch this vigilante person before he (he assumes it is a man) kills again. What then follows is a really interesting game of cat and mouse as Mercer realises that Erica might be responsible.

The ending has a really interesting twist which I will not spoil for you.

The film lasts just over two hours, 122 minutes, and seemed to fly by, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a vigilante type film it is different enough to appeal to an audience that enjoy thrillers, action and suspense type films. The acting is superb throughout and the moody soundtrack fits very well, as does the light hearted soundtrack at the beginning.

8/10 from me, dunno if it was on general release, if it was I missed it, shame, because I would watch it again in a cinema, it was £3.75 on Virgin.