Film Review: The Brave One

Liverpool Daily Post

The Brave One (Cert. 18, 119 mins),
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Nicky Katt, Naveen Andrews, Mary Steenburgen
Directed by Neil Jordan

IN A society riven by chaos, where citizens are afraid to walk the streets, who should accept responsibility for restoring order?

The government? The police? Or the people, meeting the intimidation with an greater show of force?

Neil Jordan’s provocative thriller probes the moral complexities of one woman’s crusade for justice on the streets of New York.

Erica Bain, (Jodie Foster), is a presenter of a popular radio show, which celebrates the landscape and people of New York.

During a night-time stroll, Erica and her fiancé David are the victims of a brutal and senseless attack.

David dies from his wounds, but Erica survives. Consumed with grief, she struggles to readjust.

Her rage and despair intensifies when it seems the police are incapable of bringing the culprits to justice and, armed with a gun, Erica ventures out into the city. She shoots a robber in a grocery store hold-up then flees, shortly before Detective Sean Mercer (Terence Howard) and his partner arrive to work the scene.

As Erica becomes consumed by her desire for justice, Sean begins to suspect her involvement in the vigilante slayings. Foster gives a blistering portrayal of a woman on the edge, but plotting becomes increasingly contrived as Erica stumbles from one deadly encounter to the next, and the denouement, powerful as it is, will sharply divide audiences.