Came for the thrills, stayed for the drama
Main Cast: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard
Director: Neil Jordan
Jodie Foster is such an enigma. After her acclaimed performances in films like The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, she could have owned Hollywood and had the best of the best blockbuster scripts in her hands as soon as they hit paper. But it didn’t work that way. Foster instead took on a variety of smaller projects over the years, proving that her way of “doing Hollywood” was not going to involve cashing in on her awards or her notoriety off-screen. She’s appeared in several mid-level thrillers, each time being far better than the material. A really good thriller is hard to come by, but Ms. Foster made those in which she appeared rise higher than they would with any other actress.
One Foster foray into the thriller genre is The Brave One. She plays radio personality Erica Bain who, after being the victim of a violent crime in her beloved New York City, becomes a vigilante. The plot is really just that simple. But it isn’t the plot that drives The Brave One, it’s Erica Bain and police Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard). The two do a complicated emotional dance of ethics, guilt, pain, remorse, and fallibility that is what really holds the attention of the audience. The vigilante plot is a frame around which to wrap some fairly complex pondering of the nature of the human psyche in the face of pain and fear.
In the beginning, Erica is independent and feminine, in love with her fiancé and her home. I have to admit that Foster is not as convincing here at the beginning as she is later on – she doesn’t really do the frilly girly thing all that well. She looks uncomfortable in this sweet, happy, untroubled persona. And she looks really uncomfortable in those ugly skirts they put her in.
After the crime, during which she is severely injured, she changes. She changes a lot and she changes more than once. Initially frightened to leave her home, then angry, then calm, then tortured, she goes through a succession of “personalities” as though trying them on and discarding them in an attempt to find some sort of toehold in this new reality that she didn’t make and doesn’t want.
Foster looks more comfortable here, even though her character is less emotionally stable. She gets to lock down the fantasy ever-after and dig into the guts of this woman suddenly turned strong and angry and real. Even her wardrobe changes suit her. Gone are the granola skirts and out come the jeans and leather jackets. Erica Bain is now a woman to be reckoned with, or maybe she isn’t. The new wardrobe is just one more way for Erica to change – one more way for her to distance herself from the woman she used to be and can’t get back.
The best part of The Brave One lies in the dynamic between Erica and Mercer. Foster and Howard have an on screen chemistry that is almost heartbreaking. They are both emotionally fragile and each sees a kindred soul in the other. But he is a police officer and she a vigilante. They are by nature adversaries. That she seeks out his presence says much about her tormented state and that he follows her radio program says much about his. It is watching this pair balance on a tightrope of suspicion, denial, fear and emotional need that takes The Brave One away from the thriller and into the realm of human drama.
The plot of The Brave One is about violence and suspense, but that isn’t what makes the movie good. The “revenge vigilante” has been done before and without some sort of investment in the characters it just isn’t particularly interesting. The action scenes are done well enough, but again, they’ve been done before. And as far as action goes, this is fairly tepid. What makes the movie good is the drama that unfolds as Foster takes her character from carefree to hurt, confused, and in need of solace and guidance. Howard provides what she needs, all through veiled reference and unspoken understanding – the kind that belies the respect each has for the other and the inevitability of their confrontation.
The Brave One is badly titled. Erica Bain is not brave. She never pretends to be brave; this isn’t a movie about being brave or justifying vigilantism. This is a movie about moving on, getting past a life experience that should by all rights shatter you and leave you helpless and ruined. It’s about one woman’s descent from mild mannered radio host into a person she doesn’t recognize and doesn’t like, but can’t seem to escape. It’s a good movie, better than the trailers or the title or the marketing would have you believe. Jodie Foster takes on material that on the surface looks trite and worn and helps turn it into a film that touches on what it means for a person to try and recover after they’ve lost everything they thought they knew. The bare skeleton of “the revenge movie” isn’t moving or even exciting, but The Brave One is well worth seeing for the drama that is folded onto that uninspired frame.
As of late July 2024, The Brave One is streaming on Amazon Prime Video and is available to rent on Apple TV, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.
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Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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