The thing is, it doesn't seem to want to be something else, either. 45, The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster, doesn't seem to want to be a trashy film. Though reminiscent of such unrepentantly trashy fare as Death Wish and Ferrera's Ms. Is it an exemplar of the genre, or a self-conscious deconstruction? It all depends on whether the snowman is smiling because he's smiling, or because he knows snowmen are supposed to smile. It does exactly what such movies do, and then it does it some more, and then it stops. It almost leads you to expect a twist, and then the twist is that there is no twist. The violence in Jordan's film, like the violence (and sex) in Cronenberg's, may shock or startle, but the plot seems rigorously calculated never to surprise. What The Brave One shares with the other films mentioned above is a rigid adherence to convention more conventional than all but the most mechanical instances of its genre. It's a bit like a Calvin & Hobbes strip from 15 years ago, in which Calvin followed up a grotesque, avant-garde snow sculpture ridiculing bourgeois tastes with a very traditional smiling snowman representing, Calvin said, "popular nostalgia for the simple values of rural America 50 years ago." Even so, he claimed his traditional snowman was " very avant-garde." How's that? Hobbes wondered. Without giving anything away, let’s just say that the film’s title is completely drained of any remaining irony at this point, abandoning intellectual honesty in favor of giving the people what they want.Neil Jordan's The Brave One is one of those movies that comes along occasionally from some interesting filmmaker, like Cronenberg's A History of Violence or the Polishes' The Astronaut Farmer, that leaves one squinting at something that appears so straightforward, you wonder whether the makers are entirely serious.
#Erica the brave one movie#
By the time the big moment arrives when Erica faces the three hoodlums who murdered her great love and irreversibly changed her life, it’s clear what kind of movie The Brave One ultimately wants to be. The absence of eyewitnesses to most of Erica’s killings is too convenient, and the platonic relationship that develops between Erica and the police detective investigating the vigilante murders (an empathetic Howard) is contrived. Unfortunately, the plotting in The Brave One is rather pedestrian and often flawed, undermining this film’s potential for greatness. When Foster looks in the mirror during the course of the film, you can see Erica realizing, with a mixture of fear and fascination, that she is becoming a person she no longer recognizes. Foster is very good as the conflicted Erica, subtly detailing her character’s transformative journey into the heart of darkness without losing the humanity of this lost individual. The Brave One seems to want it both ways: It stirs up emotions that justify Erica’s lawless actions but doesn’t flinch in depicting the terrible psychological price she pays with each killing. Each time Erica exacts her vengeance on the criminal element, you’re not sure whether to cheer or recoil. She goes Bernie Goetz on the subway, dispatches a pimp like Travis Bickle, and finishes off a sleazy bad guy like Dirty Harry reincarnated.
In recovering from this horrible experience, Erica falls out of love with her beloved city and hardens into an avenging angel armed with a handgun, stalking the nighttime streets of Manhattan like some stealth superhero dispensing her own brand of justice. This revenge fantasy is set in motion by a senseless act of horrendous violence: Erica Bain (Foster), the host of a New York City radio program, is brutally beaten along with her fiancé while walking their dog one evening in Central Park. Photo of Erica Bain and Chloe for fans of The Brave One 930100. For all its sophistication and sensitivity, it turns out to be little more than an upscale B-movie about getting even.
The Brave One is a confounding movie on many levels. Foster plays radio personality Erica Bain who is an investigative journalist for a nationally syndicated radio show that records the sounds of the safest, big.
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