The Brave One Review

Anyone my age will remember the movie Deathwish and the sensation it caused. When The Brave One came out, there was the natural inclination to compare it to Deathwish, on account of the basic plot: a woman who is the victim of violent crime gets herself a gun and embarks on a streak of vigilantism. While there are similarities, the two movies are very different.

In The Brave One, Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain, a woman who makes her living by roaming the streets of NYC, recording sounds, and hosting a talk radio show about the sounds of the ever-changing city. She thinks she knows all there is to know about New York. A violent attack, which leaves her physically and emotionally scarred, and kills her fiancee, however, forces her to face the fact that there is a whole other side to life in a large city that she has never really examined. She begins to notice the uglier parts of her beautiful hometown - ugly things that have been right under her nose, all alone. When Eirca buys a gun, it's not because she wants to go on a killing spree, but because she feels she needs some protection, some form of self-defense.

Unlike Deathwish, The Brave One deals in great depth, with the conflicting feelings the protagonist has about who she has turned into, what she is doing, and where she is headed. She is not so much seeking revenge, as looking for a way to get back to herself, back to the life that has been stolen from her. She embarks on a close friendship with the last person she should be spending time with - a painfully honest and straight cop (played by Terrence Howard.) In a bid to purge herself of guilt, Erica basically dangles the bait before this cop, and hopes to be caught.

The violent acts in this film are almost incidental. The movie is really about the way that violent crime can rip a person apart in ways that none of us imagine, and have a domino effect that keeps going until someone or something steps in to stop it. Where Charles Bronson's Deathwish hero comes to enjoy his "work", Jodie Foster's Erica gets no joy from the acts she commits. If anything, her own violence brings her further and further down, and further away from her true self. For her, redemption doesn't lie in getting revenge, but in relating with someone on a human level.

Well-written, well-paced, beautifully acted, and surprisingly tender, this movie is a must-see. BUt it's definitely not for children - way too much violence, profanity and some sexual content.