The Brave One

Scott has been asking me for a while to write a movie review for The Brave One because I had a different viewpoint than he did for the movie. So here you go...

The Brave One

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Erica Bain…….…………….Jodie Foster
Detective Mercer……………Terrence Howard
David Kirmani………………Naveen Andrews
Detective Vitale…………….Nicky Katt
Carol………….……………..Mary Steenburgen

Directed by Neil Jordan
Screenplay by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort

Rated R
Runtime: 1 hr 59 min

Jodie Foster. When I write that name, a number of images pop into my mind. And to a number, they are intense images. Jodie Foster has perfected the portrayal of calm in a crisis, of steely determination, of an unflinching walk past the spitting prison inmates on our screens. If that's what you're expecting when you walk into The Brave One, you've come to the wrong movie. That might surprise you, actually, because every preview out there for this movie shows Jodie Foster as vigilante, killing calmly and walking away. But that just goes to show how the movie business uses previews incorrectly. But that's another topic entirely...

Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain in The Brave One. Erica Bain is a person known for her voice. She is an NPR radio host, and her soothing tones open this movie as the credits roll. We find out that she is in the business of cataloguing the many sides of New York, a job she apparently relishes, wandering the noisy, chaotic streets of the city and taping its many sounds, from basketballs on the playground to the sound of traffic running by. It is the sound of life in the city, and it is in those little details that she finds her comfort, her occupation, and her life. Her love for the city is evident through her job and in the details of it.

Then an event happens that changes this perspective forever. Erica and her boyfriend are walking in Central Park and they are attacked. Her boyfriend is killed, and she is left for dead. When she wakes up, the first thing she finds out is that she has missed the chance to say goodbye to the love of her life. The second thing she discovers is that she now knows what it means to be afraid. She returns home, walking into their apartment, seeing him in every object left behind, finding herself in a montage of memories skillfully interwoven with the memories of the attack. The directing here is phenomenal. There is no longer any way for her to separate those two things, her love and the moment it was taken away, and we are shown that beautifully. But the one thing that she never had in her life before, fear, has taken up residence in the hollow place inside of her. She cannot bring herself to leave the apartment, and when she finally does, she goes and gets herself a gun.

This is the point where some reviewers have had issues, the gun. In my mind, there is no contradiction. I truly believe that she never intended to use the gun, but she is later placed into circumstances where she is forced to use it to protect herself and she does. Her world, which used to be carefree and unfettered, has been tainted. Wherever she goes, she is looking behind her, wherever she is, she cannot help but feel terror. This city, which was once so comforting, has become her enemy. There is a beautiful, touching monologue where she says exactly this in the middle of the movie. She cannot trust it, or anyone, again. It is up to her to save herself and protect herself. So she gets a gun, because she believes the lie that society has taught us, that having a gun will make us protected, will give power to the powerless. And she finds herself truly powerless. So she gets a gun.

And yes, she is forced to use it. And then she discovers that using it gives her power that she didn't have the night she and her boyfriend were attacked. She feeds on the fact that the power can hold the fear in check, and I think that a part of her feels that if she uses the gun to right enough wrongs, she will be able to reverse the helplessness that she felt that night, or maybe even the outcome.

Erica Bain is not a vigilante. Jodie Foster is not playing Clarice Starling. She is playing a woman who is broken, who is vulnerable, and who turns the tables on fear in hopes of overcoming its grasp once and for all.

The movie has definite flaws. The ending is an almost blatantly obvious Hollywood rewrite. I think there was a little too much "coincidence" to be believable at times. There is a lot of "action movie" and a lot of "vigilante movie" lurking in its premise. But Jodie Foster takes this role and makes it ring true. Terrence Howard nails the role of the sympathetic cop turning a blind eye to what he already knows, and the interactions between his character and Jodie's are a reminder of the power of subtlety. There is a scene where they talk facing forward looking in a mirror, and it is breathtaking in what it says using very little words. I don't have to wonder how both of these actors became so well-respected. To be able to speak with your eyes on film is an impressive feat. To be able to speak on fear in an action movie about a vigilante is a far more impressive feat. The Brave One is a movie about encountering fear and the decision that we must all make at some point in our lives to overcome it. Very brave indeed.