The Brave One (2007)
August 24th 2008 12:16
Director: Neil Jordan
Screenplay: Bruce Taylor, Roderick Taylor, Cynthia Mort
Running Time: 122 minutes
Seeing the premise, I thought I was about to watch another instalment of Charles Bronson’s Death Wish series with the talented Jodie Foster taking over the prime role created by the 1970's action star.
So, we start with the set up – happy professional couple radio host Erica Bain and her doctor boyfriend David (Foster and Neveen Andrews), about to start their life together in holy matrimony go for a walk in Central Park with their pet Alsatian. Cue thugs who kill the fiancé and beat the bejesus out of Foster, leaving her for dead.
Then we move onto the recovering Foster who no push over, who soon has thoughts of revenge surfacing in her mind as she recovers from her ordeal.
Thinking a formulatic tale of revenge was about to unfold, the thumb started hovering over the off button on the remote. The only thing that stopped the index finger putting an end to the whole show was knowing the class of director Neil Jordan and his leading lady Jody Foster would surely win out. As it turned out, the gut instincts were right, but Terrance Howard's contribution as Detective Mercer - a man going through some struggles of his own caught between feeling sympathy for the numb Bain and trying to fulfil his duty as a sworn officer of the law - should have also been taken into consideration.
What I liked most about this pic was the mood and cinematography created by Jordan, DP Philippe Rousselot and starring cast. Not only do the set pieces vary from the norm, but the change ups offered by the script keep interest high in what could be a boring movie.
A slight twist at the end initially led to thinking suspension of disbelief was being stretched, but after mulling it over, felt fit the end result. All in all, a good pic.
4 stars out of 5
| 47 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
