By Tricia Olszewski
Damsel no longer in distress
Erica Bain "walks the streets" of New York City and relates eloquent meditations about what she observes on her popular radio show. She loves her job, but resists when she finds out that a television station is courting her. "I'm not a face, I'm just a voice," Erica insists to her boss. More than her job, though, the storyteller loves her town, and seems deliriously happy to spend that evening with her fiance and dog at the park. Then they're assaulted, and her boyfriend is killed. Suddenly, New York doesn't seem so shiny. So Erica's new companion becomes a gun.
Neil Jordan's The Brave One is consistently and profoundly unsettling – and not just because it brings Charles Bronson to mind. But star Jodie Foster hasn't undone a career's worth of choosing smart if similarly themed female-in-peril roles to make Death Wish VI: A Woman Scorned, even this movie's plot is remarkably similar to the 1974 Bronson vehicle that kicked off a bloodthirsty franchise. (See James Wan's just-released, critically thrashed Death Sentence to get a rehashing of the story that more properly translates the series' spirit for today's zeitgeist.)
Foster's Erica is angry, yes, but she's frightened first. After awaking from a three-week coma to the news that David (Naveen Andrews) is dead, Erica returns to their apartment, still messy with life, and holes up to mourn. When it's time to reconnect with the world, Erica obviously has to not only overcome her grief, but the anxiety that inevitably envelops a crime victim. Jordan highlights this terror, if a little too dramatically: As Erica makes her way down her building's dark hallway, light harshly gleams in through the door and quietly menacing music plays. It's a scene more appropriate for a slasher film, but it's a forgivable indulgence.
Erica admits to her audience that fear is something that's foreign to her, a chosen state of being she formerly associated with "weaker" people. She knows that she's changed and refers to the "stranger" within. But one thing about her remains constant: Erica's still just a voice, not a face – and keeping the latter anonymous is now more important than ever. After being unnerved by situations as innocuous as a skateboarder passing her by on her first day out, Erica buys an unregistered gun. One presumes it's just for protection. And when she later witnesses a murder in a convenience store and shoots wildly at the gunman when he comes after her, Erica is suitably horrified. The next time there's a danger, though, she decides to kill again, later wrestling with the fact that revealing her weapon would have probably been enough to save her. She's not comfortable with what she's doing, but she doesn't stop.
Foster is unsurprisingly terrific as Erica, projecting her usual toughness while physically looking like a stiff breeze could snap her in half. She knows that feeling shocked doesn't mean turning frozen. Best, she never lets Erica get smug, even as the media's screaming about the vigilante they're sure is a man or as she befriends the detective investigating the case (Terrence Howard, smoothly proving that indignation can be righteous without being arrogant). As Erica finds herself increasingly mired, Foster's expression is tense but about to crumble, with tears always threatening but rarely unleashed.
Of course, The Brave One wouldn't really work if Erica didn't turn into a magnet for crime, but the parade of coincidences that accompany the character's development is a minor script weakness. More impressive is the film's ability to wring your gut. Its violence is pervasive and all the more sickening due to its presence in many forms: It can be graphic, like Erica and David's vicious attack, which included her being slammed against a concrete wall. (The assailants videotape it, a recording that finds its way back to Erica; she also has audio of confrontations that took place while she was out taping ambient sounds for work.) More often, though, violence is implied or impending: A subplot involving a girl and the stepfather who allegedly murdered her mother is heartbreaking, and each time Erica suddenly finds herself vulnerable is another occasion to hold your breath regardless of the fact that she's packing.
The story's revenge factor is undeniable, but Jordan never plays any of Erica's murders for a thrill. Her actions are the desperate grasps of a traumatized person trying to regain a sense of control. She's surprised by them, is never at peace with them, and she eventually comes to the realization that they're destroying instead of rescuing her. Still, The Brave One is likely to get a raucous response whenever a bad guy goes down. You may be disturbed by this, or you may be one of those cheering. Either way, this movie will make you react.