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Notable Characters:
Jodie Foster – Erica Bain
Terrence Howard – Detective Mercer
Plot (contains spoilers): Erica Bain, a radio personality, and her fiancée are brutally attacked in central park, unfortunately her fiancée dies from his injuries. After waking up after 3 weeks, she learns of her fiancée’s death and becomes scared to leave her apartment. When she gets the courage to leave her apartment she buys a gun immediately to protect herself. One night in a convenient store, a jealous husband comes in, guns down his wife, and when learning that someone else is in the store is gunned down by Jodie Foster. As a result of her “self defense” killing, she realizes that in some way it helps her cope with her own loss. Later on in a subway, she is harassed by a couple of thugs with a knife and she kills them as well. This prompts the media to write about a vigilante roaming the streets. From this news story Detective Mercer, a good cop with a strong passion for the law, and Erica strike up a deep friendship. As the movie progresses Erica kills, Detective Mercer draws closer to realizing that Erica is the vigilante, and their friendship grows deeper. The climax of the movie is when Erica learns the location of her fiancée’s murders and goes there to kill or be killed. She successfully guns down two of them and it captured by the third until Mercer shows up gives her his gun, let’s her have closer (shoot the bad guy), and lets her go free.
Reasons why I didn’t like it:
• Jodie Foster. I don’t think she was good at all in this role. I actually don’t like her that much as an actor anyway, but role produced a sub-par performance.
• The ending was ridiculous. What Mercer did was completely out of character. Throughout the whole movie it established Mercer to be a completely by the book cop with the courage to do what is right even if it means locking away the person closest to him. Aiding someone in murder was a complete shock to how he was being portrayed and seemed to be put there for simple “Betcha didn’t see that coming” To which I would reply “Of course it caught me by surprise. Anyone that possess rational thought would have been surprise, it doesn’t mean it was good.”
• It did not have a consistent theme. The first half of the movie had seemed like it was going to be a movie about someone coping with the loss of a loved one. The second half of the movie was about the creation of a superhero vigilante.
Reason why I liked it:
• Terrence Howard is awesome. He really made this movie enjoyable and stole the spotlight in every scene.
Final Notes:
Not a god movie. If you are in the mood of a vigilante movie I would strongly suggest “Death Sentence” which, in my opinion, was one of the best movies of the summer.
Young's Review
When James and I started doing this blog, we thought we would have diverging viewpoints about the films we were watching. After the first two movies we reviewed together ('Death Sentence' and '3:10 To Yuma'), that was definitely not the case. That all changed with 'The Brave One', which I am giving a 'thumbs up'. I had high hopes for this film, and while it did not completely live up to my exectations, it was still compelling.
Erica Bain's transition from a thoughtful, well adjusted person to an ice cold vigilante was far from smooth. In fact, it did not seem consistent with the character's development. Perhaps that is why the image of Bain shooting her first three victims is so jarring.
The highlight of the film is undoubtedly the relationship between Jodie Foster's Bain and Detective Mercer, played by the always reliable Terrence Howard (Hustle & Flow). Bain is reluctant to get too close to anyone because she fears her identity may be discovered. Mercer is reclusive as well in the sense that he has a general distrust of the media (Bain is a local radio personality). All of these issues are cast aside when the two meet for the first time. Mercer is intrigued by Bain, and Bain seems to feel safer knowing Mercer is watching over her. The dynamic between them is the emotional center of the film and every scene the two share is fascinating.
The premise was similar to that of Death Sentence in that both films featured characters that were looking for vengeance after the brutal murder of a loved one. The difference was while Kevin Bacon's character had a singular focus in finding his son's killers, Bain became an arbiter of justice for the world at large. Director Neil Jordan (Interview With The Vampire) impressively displayed Bain's violent metamorphosis without letting the audience judge her for it.
The acting and directing were both fantastic. Foster and Howard were both on top of their games. Naveen Andrews (Lost) also made a brief, but memorable, appearance as Bain's murdered fiancee.
While I enjoyed this film, I have just one thing to say to Mr. Wilsford: can we pick something a little lighter next week?
Other Jodie Foster Movies
Other Terrence Howard Movies
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