The Brave One - C+

A savage attack leaves Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) in a coma and her doctor fiancé dead. Bain is a New York talk show host for an NPR-type station and goes around the city recording sounds and speeches (that serve as voice-over). After the attack, she becomes borderline agoraphobic and eventually decides to buy a gun. She then turns vigilante and gets 1970s style justice. (Click below for the rest of Taxi Driver 2: Iris is All Grows Up)

Foster does an admirable job of depicting a tortured woman who doesn’t understand her new-found feelings of vengeance and fear. As the investigating detective, Terrence Howard is nicely understated and his wisecracking scenes with his partner (Nicky Katt – one of my favorite character actors) are the best moments in the movie. Irishman Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) is an interesting choice to director this piece of American pulp, but he goes overboard with the camera angles (symbolizing Foster’s inner turmoil). He fills the film with beautiful shadows and colors and avoids the typical New York locations and skylines.

But everyone is let down by the story which seems rushed, forced, and familiar. The odds of Howard meeting Foster in a hospital after her attack, forging a friendship because of her radio show, and unknowingly investigating her as the killer is astronomical. The same detective being assigned all of the random scattered murders in New York is never believable in any movie. And the ending is disastrous – not just in its execution (anyone who’s seen one CSI episode knows the evidence won’t hold) but also its message (wait – violence is the answer?). Hasn't the Iraq War taught you Hollywood right-wingers anything? C+

For me, one of the biggest sins a movie can commit is liberally referencing classic movie(s) and not focusing on its own characters, plot, etc. Certainly, Scorsese is not immune from his influences, but he’s much more obscure and subtle. Foster’s first killing is nearly shot-for-shot remake of Travis Bickle’s first murder. Both occur in a convenient store where the lead is hiding in the back and both perpetrators get shot in the neck. Both films have a “God’s eye view” after the climax with the camera pulling back from the ground into the sky. The presence of Foster doesn’t help the inevitable comparisons to Taxi Driver, but she’s great in both films. Wonder how she’d look with a mohawk.