The Brave One
2007
*½
Director: Neil Jordan
Cast: Jodie Foster, Naveen Andrews, Terrence Howard, Nicky Katt, Zoe Kravitz, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Adams, Julia Garro
A radio show host and her fiancé are brutally assaulted in Central Park, which leaves him dead and her traumatised. She buys an illegal firearm to protect herself, but ends up becoming a vigilante. If you want to kid yourself, you can read the story as an allegory on America's reaction to 9/11, but really this is nothing more than Death Wish with high pretensions and a misjudged title. The whole thing is a morality play without any dilemma. The heroine is a righteous killer without scruples and her victims are irredeemable scumbags whose mothers won't miss them. To counterbalance the heroine's vindictive tendencies, there is a detective who investigates her killing spree, but he would rather just shoot the bad guys himself because he is frustrated with the restrictions imposed by the law. This film is a typical, morally bankrupt Hollywood product which abhors and celebrates violence. The grim honesty of Michael Haneke's Funny Games seems all the more relevant after this nauseating wish fulfilment. The ending is simply off-putting.
