Foster convinces as the petrified victim turned vengeful killer and Howard is superb as the world weary detective. Together, they just about managed to save a frequently ham-fisted script.
The Brave One (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:178
Fresh:77
Rotten:101
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Magnetic by between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can't quite compensate for The Brave One's problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.
Rated: 18 [See Full Rating] for strong violence, language and some sexuality.
Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins
Genre: Justice, Thriller, New York City, Revenge, Theatrical Release
Theatrical Release:28-09-2007
Synopsis: For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the... For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show "Street Walk." At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiance David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it. Though Erica's broken body heals, deeper wounds remain--the devastation of losing David and, even more overwhelming, a suffocating fear that haunts her every step. The city streets she had once loved to roam, even places that had been warm and familiar, now feel strange and threatening. When the fear finally becomes too much to bear, Erica makes a fateful decision to arm herself against it. The gun in her hand becomes a tangible way to protect herself from an intangible enemy...or so she thinks. The first time she shoots someone, it is kill or be killed. The second time is also in self-defense...or did she make a choice not to take herself out of harm's way? The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else...something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night...something that Erica does not even recognize in herself. Stories of an anonymous vigilante grip the city, and NYPD detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) becomes increasingly determined to track down the killer. As he pieces together the clues, the evidence begins to point not to a guy with a gun...but a woman with a grudge. With Mercer closing in and her own conscience trying her, Erica must decide whether her quest for some form of justice, and even vengeance, is truly the right path, or if she has become the very thing she is hunting. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster ("The Silence of the Lambs," "The Accused") and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") star in "The Brave One." The film is directed by Academy Award winner Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") and produced by Joel Silver ("The Matrix" trilogy, "V For Vendetta") and Susan Downey ("Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"). The main cast also includes Naveen Andrews (TV's "Lost," "The English Patient") as David, Erica's fiance; Nicky Katt ("Grindhouse") as Mercer's partner, Detective Vitale; and Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen ("Melvin and Howard") as Carol, Erica's boss at the radio station. Jordan directed "The Brave One" from a screenplay by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort, story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor. Herbert W. Gains, Jodie Foster, Dana Goldberg and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. The behind-the-scenes creative team included Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot ("A River Runs Through It"), marking his fourth collaboration with Jordan, production designer Kristi Zea ("The Departed"), Jordan's longtime editor Tony Lawson ("Michael Collins," "The End of the Affair"), costume designer Catherine Thomas ("Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2") and Oscar-nominated composer Dario Marianelli ("Pride & Prejudice"). "The Brave One" is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production. "The Brave One" has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence, language and some sexuality. --© Warner Bros [More]
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt
Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Mary Steenburgen
Director: Neil Jordan
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor, Cynthia Mort
Story: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Producer: Joel Silver, Susan Downey
Composer: Dario Marianelli
Studio: Warner Bros.
Reviews for The Brave One
With a smart script, sure-handed direction and strongly internalised performances, this film astutely blends a personal drama with a revenge thriller.
Beautifully played, the tantalising accretion of mutual understanding between Foster and Howard is one of the film’s strengths, yet the plot machinations required to lever it into position would overstretch credibility in the clunkiest action flick.
What you can't deny is Foster's expertise at mixing vulnerability with an inner rage that half excuses what she is doing.
Led by Jodie Foster, The Brave One is an adult Hollywood thriller a notch above most vigilante movies. Powerful and provocative, it will keep you thinking long after you've left the cinema.
Unfortunately, with each bullet she discharges, credibility takes a hit.
Neil Jordan ought to be doing more challenging material than this overblown, overwrought thriller that has only obvious points to make about the moral swamp that is urban vigilantism.
Alas, moral niceties are blown away in a frenzy of retribution, and a "controversial" ending undoes any plausibility.
Like Foster's character, Erica Bain, the movie makes a tortured show of conscience, then trades it in for a leather jacket and a semi-automatic.
Foster keeps us gripped with a convincing display of steely determination and moral ambiguity.
It wants to be a modern Taxi Driver; it manages to be the new Falling Down, with Foster as fierce as ever.
Foster is terrific and Jordan's direction is impressive, but the film doesn't quite succeed, due to the strain of trying to be both angry revenge thriller and emotional, thought-provoking drama.
Foster’s moments of quality drive home how shaky and inconsistent this vigilante drama is. Want something to avenge? How about the way it fails to live up to the sum of its reputable talents. Now that’s criminal…
As you’d expect, the talented Foster and Howard clearly relish sinking their teeth into a pair of well-rounded parts, their relationship teetering between cop and suspect, and the possibility of a romance.
As with all revenge movies, it simply provides its thrills by bumping off the bad guys.
The performers, however, almost make us forget the problems with the script. Foster and Howard are a riveting pair.
Jodie Foster creates a symphony of raw emotions. A huge crowd pleaser.
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