Vigilante movies came into style with the first “Death Wish” and thrived through all kinds of knockoffs. Although some movies and shows aren’t labeled vigilante movies, they all have the common theme of someone defying the law to get justice. Countless action movies have characters who “don’t play by the rules” and hit TV shows like 24, The Shield, and Dexter have “heroes” that defy or abuse the rules to bring down the villains. And what are super heroes like Batman, Spider Man and Superman but vigilantes in their own right? By that accord, the vigilante genre is both an A and B list topic for movies. This is certainly true in “The Brave One” as Jodie Foster gives the vigilante film a female perspective while trying to be both meaningful and thrilling.
Erica Bane is a New York city radio host, engaged to hot doctor David. But it is all shattered when they go down the wrong alley and encounter a gang of thugs. Erica is put into a coma for three weeks before being told that David is dead. As she struggles to try and rebuild her life, Detective Mercer is dealing with a failed marriage and rich criminals he can’t get off the streets. Erica soon buys a gun after daring to go outside again, which she uses when she is in the crossfire of a liquor store robbery. Soon, Erica gets herself into all kinds of dark and sinister elements to kill them in response. As Mercer begins to take notice of the mysterious deaths and their pattern of vigilantism, he and Erica start to encounter each other. As Erica tries to live with what she’s become, she has to question whether she even wants to stop while Mercer slowly begins to figure things out.
Director Neil Jordan was once on the A list with films like “Mona Lisa” “Interview with the Vampire” “Michael Collins” and the film that will be on his tombstone “The Crying Game.” After a string of smaller Irish films and middle of the road thrillers, “The Brave One” has Jordan trying to ride Foster’s still strong star power back to the top. Of course, with a vigilante story like “The Brave One”, Jordan and Foster risked and received accusations that they were remaking “Death Wish.” But hot button topics like vigilantism are often made in response to other real life hot button issues. When Foster’s Erica talks about New York and how it seems so scary to her now, the images of 9/11 and the months afterwards are certainly meant to be remembered as a parallel. In the climate of terrorism and the controversial responses to it, the vigilante justice of “The Brave One” takes on a whole new meaning. But Jordan is often less subtle about this comparison than he should be, plus he often gets in the way of Foster and Terrance Howard’s best efforts.
With a traditional few minutes of oh so loving filler between Erica and David, we then go to the attack, which Jordan has committed by a stock company of stereotypical street thugs. One of them films the attack with a camera- a tactic which is getting old in the wake of all these “Cloverfield” and “Redacted” movies about cameras filming disasters. So Jordan pretty much ruins that scene by trying to be a bit too stylish, and he tops that with Erica imagining hot sex with David in parallel to the medics taking her bloody clothes off. After this clumsy setup, “The Brave One” switches back and forth from being really good to being disappointingly mediocre.
As Erica struggles to put things together, Foster gets this across often without saying a word for several minutes. The “broken woman who finally strikes back” genre has been good to Foster, and “The Brave One” lets her take that up a notch. Foster wages a one woman battle to keep “The Brave One”‘s best moments and themes going, which she quite often succeeds at. But narrative and character contrivances often defeat Foster’s valiant efforts. For instance, all it takes is one afternoon of being ignored by cops to get Erica wanting to buy a gun. Then after being told she needs to wait 30 days, fortunately a guy is magically waiting outside the gun shop to ignore those pansy rules for her. With that, the vigilante justice can begin, which puts Foster back ahead of the movie as she shows Erica’s horror at what she has done. But even as Foster gets to show how broken and possibly disturbed Erica has become, Jordan indulges in way too many tilted camera angle shots that become quite distracting.
Soon the vigilante moments start to become the weakest part of “The Brave One.” It would have probably served the message better if every single person Erica meets on the street didn’t deserve to die. Instead of being a serious look at how the response to violence changes a person, “The Brave One” becomes yet another movie about killing the scum of the earth. Maybe if Erica killed an innocent person at some point, the more serious consequences of vigilantism would have a chance to appear. But the arguments for and against vigilantism justice are severely undercut when “The Brave One” is so clearly for Erica killing these cardboard cutout psychopaths and criminals. And when she starts spouting out action catchphrases like “I want my dog back!” the movie is no different from a regular old “cop who doesn’t play by the rules” film.
Over time, “The Brave One” becomes more about how Erica and Mercer come together, through a series of somewhat contrived coincidences. This is where Terrance Howard is a more welcome presence. Though Jordan tends to sensationalize the action and gloss over some stuff, Howard is a more stable presence on the movie. Howard is one of the more reliable actors around that can deliver a multi faceted performance in the right role, like in “Crash” and “Hustle and Flow.” Here, Howard is playing a cop devoted to the law, but who can probably understand the limits of the law and the frustration with the rules as much as Erica can. As such, this is a pretty cliched part, but when Foster and Howard square off and share their demons- to as much a point as they can- “The Brave One” hits it’s higher notes. Foster and Howard both belong in much better movies than they are often put in. Although those great skills elevate movies like “The Brave One” Foster and Howard can only take it so far.
In the end, “The Brave One” becomes less of a serious look at the subject matter than just another procedural/action film. And when the ending comes, Jordan abandons these deeper themes altogether for the revenge fantasy stuff. Worse of all, “The Brave One” goes to such extensive lengths to let Erica off the hook for it, it undercuts nearly every troubling question and theme that it had asked beforehand. And not only does this undercut Foster’s character, it soon ruins Howard’s as well. With that in mind, by the end we have to ask what was the point of taking the vigilante theme this seriously at all, if it was going to end up like just another trashy movie. In cases like “The Brave One” sometimes it’s better not to try and examine these themes more seriously if you’re not going to follow through with it all the way.
Foster has moments of real power and raw emotion that she hasn’t been able to show in a while. Howard continues to be impressive, which makes it a shame that he’s been stuck in films like “Pride” “Awake” and “The Perfect Holiday” since he rose to stardom. And when the movie is actually able to stick to it’s troubling guns, it becomes a vigilante film that can speak to our troubled times. But “The Brave One” trips over itself once too often in it’s more basic and paint by numbers elements.
