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Director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto, has brought a number of interesting films to the screen, so it’s curious that he chose to make a fairly straightforward action movie like this. And, indeed, there are indications that his intentions were to bring depth to the genre. This is a patently post-9/11 picture, set in New York City and drenched with a sense of helpless, unreasoning fear in the aftermath of a violent assault.

Foster plays the victim of that assault, a radio personality named Erica Bane who does an NPR-style monologue show called “Streetwalk.” After a brutal beating by thugs that leaves her fiancé (Naveen Andrews) dead and puts her into a coma for three weeks, Erica buys a gun. She then takes to walking the streets at night looking for reasons to use it.

Jordan tries to have all of his revenge-fantasy cake and eat it, too, by making Erica’s gradual surrender to her violent impulses a conflicted, painful journey. Her initial kill is out of terror and self-defense, but the satisfaction and power she feels leads her to continue, even though she feels loathsome for doing it. Foster acquits herself admirably – she’s an astonishingly good actress, after all, and it’s easy to see why she’d want to play this role. The question is whether most movie-goers will appreciate the subtleties.

The problem with the whole dark-night-of-the-soul thing is that it’s secondary to the violence. There are many good films where violent acts are integral to the story, like 3:10 to Yuma, or where the carnage is so laughably over-the-top that it’s funny, like Shoot ‘Em Up. The violence in The Brave One however, takes place in a Death Wish style vigilante film and, as disturbing and brutal as it is, the audience is still encouraged to root for the hero. If a recent preview screening is an indication, the moral message of Jordan’s picture will fly over the heads of many viewers – much of the preview audience was hooting, clapping and laughing whenever Erica blew somebody away, as if they were watching another Die Hard sequel.

Muddying the plot’s waters further is Erica’s relationship with the detective investigating the “vigilante killer,” played by Terrence Howard. As his nagging suspicions that Erica may be responsible escalate, the tension increases. She’s aware that she’ll eventually be caught, and even seems to welcome the inevitable punishment for her actions. Yet while the film drives towards what ought to be a powerfully dark conclusion, ultimately Jordan delivers a tepid Hollywood ending, in which Erica’s not only let off the hook, she’s rewarded for her behavior. It doesn’t make sense, and it feels engineered so that the audience can walk out in a cheerful mood rather than serving the rest of the story.

Jordan is a fine director, and Foster is an extraordinary actress, so it’s possible that the film they originally envisioned was more complex than this sensationalistic revenge flick. Made all the more unfortunate by the fact that most ticket-buyers will fail to see beyond the gun violence to the more human story, “The Brave One” is simply a competent failure by a very good director.

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originally posted: 09/14/07 11:40:52
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