You and the person you love most in the world are beaten in a act of random, senseless violence. Hurt badly, you go into a coma for several weeks, and your loved one is killed during the attack. You awaken to discover the authorities are of little help in solving the case, and you have severe stress and fear that you may be attacked again.
In the words of that famous philosopher, Keanu Reeves (from Speed):
"What do you do? What do you do?"
(Dear gawd, just remembering Reeves recite that line from the 1994 flick gives me the creeps. Where's my Flashback! file?!?)
Me? I'd probably go to bed and close the door on the world for the next 10 years or so, living on pain pills and relying on smokes to get me through the day.
Jodi Foster's character, Erica Bain? She buys a gun and goes on a Bernie Goetz-type vigilante-spree, becoming an anti-hero who eventually seeks out the thugs who killed her fiance.
The Brave One looks at how Bain overcomes her fear through violence. The performances of Foster and Terrance Howard, who plays the cop searching for the vigilante, are good. But it's the ending that makes this movie. It doesn't sell out to the audience, even though I feared that it would.
The flick makes a powerful statement about how powerless we humans tend to be, and how few option we actually have in life to feel the power that we sometimes need.
6 comments:
I would do it. Murder some jackass who hurt my loved ones, I mean. In fact I wouldn't even call the cops. I would just dig a hole. A really small one, if you know what I mean ;)
Hell, when I see crime victims families in court just feet away from some scumbag I want to yell, "What are you just standing there for? Stab him! Hit him! Do something!!!" But that's just me.
Another great review!
Thanks, Jackie. I'm with you on this, really. I've thought about this a lot, and...
Well, I'm with ya on this.
You forgot to mention Sayid from Lost! I thought the movie was well-directed but a little convoluted.
I did forget, Iremonger! I remember seeing him, getting all geeked up about it and thinking I needed to make that LOST connection for all my LOST buddies.
Mrs. Film Geek sure was into the guy, too...
But I forgot.
It was highly convoluted, I agree. But I can't help getting stuck in that "what would I do if I'm in her place" mindset. And I think I'd do the same thing.
The ending I liked though. Too many times movies sell out in order to allow a character redemption. This one didn't sell out as much.
This movie was ok. Some good acting and I liked the whole renegade premise thing. I guess the ending didn't sell out but it didn't have a whole lot of places to go.
If it were me, I'd learn 7 types of Kung Fu and use my fists of steel to cut the crime rate.
I work at Blockbuster and love watching movies. I just started a blog about movies. I was searching around for similar blogs, curious about other's opinions and came across yours. You have a lot of the same opinions and tastes in movies as I do. I loved it that you guys commented about Sayid being Jodie Foster's fiance in Brave One. Lost is my favorite show, and that was the first thing I noticed when I watched that movie. I thing everyone related to how Jodie Foster's character felt and reacted to this situation. How could you help but feel that way, that's a terrible thing to happen and I'm sure that many people have felt that pain.
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