The Brave One - Now on video
Starring Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews

I wanted to like this film. I really did. It stars, after all, one of my all-time favorites, Jodie Foster. It was directed by Neil Jordan, who brought such brilliance to The Crying Game and The End of the Affair. And, it featured Terrence Howard, an actor who has impressed me in roles small and large. But try as I might, I just couldn’t get my head or heart around this movie. 

It’s marred by numerous problems, not the least of which is the relationship between Foster’s Erica Bain and her fiancé, played by Naveen Andrews. The entire movie spins on the supposed bond between these two characters. Too bad they have zero chemistry. Zilch. Nothing. I never bought them as a couple, or lovers, or soon-to-be husband and wife. So when Andrew’s character is murdered and Foster, who is also attacked, turns vigilante, the shift isn’t credible. Her newly steely composure and hardened edges are supposed to reflect a woman damaged, a woman braced against a city that turned on her and took a man she loved. Okay, I get it–she’s pissed. But where’s the hurt? Where’s the gut-wrenching pain of losing someone you love in an act so violent and cruel that going on seems impossible? Bain’s slide into violence should be an emotional journey that we take with her, struggling alongside her to conclude that revenge-at-any-cost is worth the price of guilt and shame over wanting to kill. We never get that chance. Foster doesn’t let us in, and as a result, we don’t care.

Much of the movie feels contrived and predictable. Things happen exactly as they should. Howard brings some life to his character’s own struggle with right versus wrong; unfortunately, it’s resolved in a way that borders on the absurd. I was literally shaking my head near the end of the film, so frustrated with how easily and neatly all the pieces were resolved. The only real upside was the return of a missing dog at the end of the third act. He was, after all, my favorite character.