勇敢的人 The Brave One review by PAM GRADY

For the second time in two weeks comes a violent movie in which a crime victim turns hunter to extract revenge. Both the Kevin Bacon-starring Death Sentence, the first one out of the gate, and The Brave One seek to exploit middle-class fears of urban crime and violence. But Death Sentence was a simple little thriller with no pretensions to do more than provide an entertaining, if brutal, time at the multiplex and it followed its story to a logical conclusion. The Brave One with an A-list director in Neil Jordan and top-flight talent in stars Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard is more of a paranoid fantasy that tries to have it both ways as seeking vengeance—and not necessarily against people who have actually wronged her—makes radio talk jock Erica (Foster) feel really, really guilty, but does not stop her from making like Charles Bronson and continuing her one-woman vigilante campaign.
Like Death Sentence, The Brave One plot engages when good people make the mistake of crossing into a land where rules of civilized behavior do not apply. Bacon stopped at a gas station in a bad neighborhood; Erica's doctor fianc?David (Lost's Naveen Andrews) distractedly throws a ball into a park's lonely tunnel for his dog. When he and Erica step inside to discover what has become of the animal, a group of louts step from the shadows and beat and rob the couple. She awakens from a coma days later to a radically changed world. The woman who hosts the insipid talk show that extols the joys of New York City now fears the place. She does not want to leave her apartment, but then she buys a gun.

The weapon is for protection, but then she uses it one night in a case of self-defense, her first step in transforming into an urban hunter. Soon, the tabloids are full of the exploits of this local hero. A detective, Mercer (Howard), takes charge of the investigation, vowing to catch someone he regards as no better than the murdered criminals. Erica is wracked by guilt, but has enough presence of mind to cover the case on her show and to befriend Mercer. The vigilante disgusts him; he is a good cop who believes in the justice system, even as he privately admits to Erica its failure when it comes to a case that has long obsessed him.

The Brave One is effective up to a point, but Foster's histrionics quickly grow tiresome. Erica's guilt seems a little disingenuous when she continues to actively troll for complete strangers to dispatch. And Mercer has a point: how is she any better than the people she kills when she leaves home with murder on her mind? Straight-up revenge is one thing, but she is a self-appointed urban garbage collector, taking out the trash.

This is a depressing movie, but not for the action in it, which everyone has seen before is less highfalutin movies, such as Death Wish and Ms. 45. It is just depressing watching Foster play the victim yet again. After Flightplan, Panic Room, The Accused, Five Corners, Taxi Driver, and even The Silence of the Lambs, if one takes into account the way Hannibal Lecter pushes Clarice's buttons, it is a little monotonous and way too predictable watching her play the vulnerable female yet again.

In The Brave One, Foster is almost an anonymous woman, since the screenplay does a poor job of defining Erica as a character before the attack. She hosts a radio show, she has a younger fianc? she loves New York, and orange and cream are the colors she chooses for her wedding invitations. She never comes fully to life, which makes it hard to care what happens to her before or after the attack.

Jordan's direction is competent, but for the man who made The Crying Game, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, and Breakfast on Pluto, one guesses this slick, decidedly mainstream project is little more than a paycheck. Unfortunately, it shows. The minutes pass quickly enough in watching The Brave One, but it is a waste of time.

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