The Brave One [2007]
Director: Neil Jordan
Actor: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews
Erica (Foster) and David (Andrews) are to be married. She’s a presenter of a radio-show and he’s a doctor. They are happy and successful people living in New York City. Until they go walk their dog in Central Park and get attacked by a group of hoods. They are beaten so badly that David dies, and Erica is in a coma for over three weeks. When she comes to she has to deal with David’s death, and the realisation that the city she once loved so dearly, is a lot darker and more sinister than she thought it was. For the longest time she feels incapable of going out and walking the streets, going to work, or even going to the grocery store around the corner. She finally manages to get her courage together and quickly realises she feels vulnerable and goes in search of protection. She tries to buy a gun and is confronted with the 30 day waiting period for a license and expresses her dismay in the store. A “friendly” co-shopper overhears and says he can get her a gun for a thousand dollars and she agrees. Pretty soon afterwards, while she’s doing some late night shopping, she stumbles upon a murder; the murderer kills his wife, the cashier of the grocery store, and doesn’t notice Erica until (of course) her mobile phone rings while she’s hiding. The cat-and-mouse game in the isles of the grocery store quickly ends as Erica finds that she’s a good enough shot to wound and kill the man. She takes the security tape and hightails it out of there. This is the start of her vigilante career, and she finds more bad guys to kill.
Investigating the dead people she leaves behind in a decidedly Charles Bronson fashion is detective Mercer (Howard), who befriends Erica and confides in her some of the frustration he feels in trying to bring people to justice when the long arm of the law doesn’t seem to stretch far enough. They both seem to fill a void in one another, but all the while Mercer is seeking to apprehend the vigilante, who is Erica.
The movie is pretty grim, and very violent, and shows the unpolished underbelly of New York City. It’s easy to be dazzled by the touristy areas of Manhattan and be fooled into a false sense of security when you see that everything clean, and open, and well-lit, and that there’s a lot of cops on the street, but there are many not-so-safe areas around New York City that you hardly ever get to see. (Hell, the only borough you usually see is Manhattan and that’s not really a good representation.) Those ugly bits have been very well captured in this movie.
The story is good, but familiar, but acting and visuals makes the film worthwhile. Jodie Foster is good, Naveen Andrews is good, but Terrence Howard is magnificent in this film. He reminds me so much of a black version of Benicio Del Toro, even down to his mannerisms and speech, and it was great to see how he got such an important role in the movie.