A highly effective revenge thriller, Neil Jordan´s The Brave One is only beset by the fact that it´s almost a carbon copy of Michael Winner´s 1974 Death Wish, replacing Charles Bronson with Jodie Foster and calling it a day.
Yet it´s still compelling stuff, aided greatly by an experienced director and two stars at the top of their game who play off each other perfectly.
Jordan explores the ethics of vigilante justice more than in your usual revenge pic, but this is countered by a conventional and improbable ‘happy´ ending that lacks the punch of the rest of the film.
Foster stars as Erica Bain, NYC radio personality about to marry doctor & fiancé David (Naveen Andrews). One night while walking the dog, they´re brutally attacked by some street thugs who leave David dead and Erica in the hospital; weeks later, she begins her recovery by buying a black-market gun for protection.
Soon she´s using the gun for protection, and soon after that she´s using it to clean the streets (haven´t I seen this before?); Detectives Mercer (Terrence Howard) and Vitale (Nicky Katt) are soon on the case, though they´re unusually clueless for most of the film.
Mercer runs into Erica at one of the crimes scenes – recognizing her as a radio show host – and the two forge an credibility-stretching relationship (though a romance between these two is better, I suppose, than one between Bronson and Vincent Gardenia).
Foster is solid as usual; I can´t imagine another name actress delivering the same credibility and moral conscience to the role.
Howard is also excellent, lending a dogged sympathy to his role. The thugs are all uncomfortable clichés, however: Latino and Black gangstas, an Italian-American Mafioso.
Still, few pictures deliver the visceral thrill of vigilante justice as effectively as this one.
Pic would rate higher if only it didn´t borrow so many elements from similar films; the NYC urban landscape, along with a number of entire segments, feel almost lifted from Death Wish; there´s also a dash of Taxi Driver, particularly in a convenience store scene that precisely recalls Travis Bickle´s first brush with vigilantism.
But (at least, until the finale) the film works; worth seeing, and will likely play better if you haven´t seen (or don´t remember) those ‘70´s vigilante flicks.
