Somewhat at cross-purposes, The Brave One stars Jodie Foster in a shattering performance as Erica Bain, a popular essayist on a public radio station in New York. In love and engaged to David (Naveen Andrews), a doctor, Erica and her fiancé are brutally attacked one night by a gang of thugs. David is killed but Erica survives, only to find herself a stranger in her own skin, facing down her fears by shooting violent criminals.

With the city riveted by her anonymous actions, Erica becomes an object of curiosity for a police detective (an excellent Terrence Howard) disillusioned by his own struggles to protect the innocent from truly evil men. Jordan's previous films (The Crying Game, Breakfast on Pluto) resonate with The Brave One's most interesting angle, i.e., that each of us possesses a hidden element in our identities that comes out in extreme circumstances, making us wonder who we really are. It's all excellent food for thought, but the film squanders much of its significance by thrusting Erica into numerous, outlandish situations in which her only alternative is to put a bullet in a bad guy. The result is a smart film tediously structured like a disposable B movie. --Tom Keogh

The Brave One (Full-Screen Edition)

• Michael Clayton (Widescreen Edition)
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• American Gangster (2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition)
• We Own the Night
• Gone Baby Gone
• In the Valley of Elah
• I Am Legend (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition)
• 3:10 to Yuma (Widescreen Edition)
• No Country for Old Men
• Rendition

Jodie has made a Aone DVD. It is different and very intriging. She does an excellent job in all her portrayals.

As a Jodie fan for some 30+ years (I fell in love w/ her character in The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane back in the 70s), I consider this to be one of her best performances. Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver, Silence Of The Lambs, Panic Room, Flight Plan) has really hit her stride w/ these thrillers. In THE BRAVE ONE, she takes on the role of radio-personality turned vigilante w/ ease and cool lethality. Ms. The toll that vengeance takes on the avenger in the form of a new inner deadness and freezing of one's own soul. I was even more surprised by my own gleeful reaction to it. I must admit that I did not see the finalé coming.

The price of becoming an angel of death is extremely high. Terrence Howard is also great as the cop who finds himself torn between his sense of morality / duty, and his growing understanding of / respect for the motive that drives this street-avenger. Foster brings authenticity and anguish to the part of Erica Bain. While the scumbags who get their due are certainly deserving of their fate, Erica must go deeper into the abyss w/ each execution. At first, I thought this was going to be some sort of DEATH WISH re-tread.

Nope, TBO is a story about the ultimate cost of revenge. Watch it and you'll see what I mean. I found myself pitying her, while at the same time hoping she would get the satisfaction that she was willing to kill and die for. I was surprised by it.

Summarizing: Jodie and her boyfriend are beaten to a pulp in Central Park. Jodie chose this role very well. I thought this was a terrific Jodie Foster movie. The boyfriend dies and Jodie becomes a vigilante as she searches for the perps to even the score. Terrence Young is a detective that's simpathetic to her cause. This movie was well written and doesn't contain any nonsense scenes of gore, torture, or rape.

Her show's going great. The story tells how fear changes a person and makes them wonder if they will ever be the same again. Also, kudos to Terence Howard as Detective Mercer. So, she buys an illegal gun.

Jodie Foster's given the best performance of a life full of strong performances. Radio announcer Erica Bain (Foster) had the perfect life. She loves her fiancee, Dr.

A friend tells her she's got to figure out a way to life. The dream is a lot harsher than the reality. She's afraid to walk the streets anymore, even the most innocent passerby makes her wary. Almost every person who's been hurt has wanted to seek vengeance in some way. That's the hard thing.

Erica awakens from a coma after three weeks to discover that David's family had to let him go while she was unconscious.

Rebecca Kyle, September 2008.

Next, she takes up smoking.

David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews).

Then they are attacked one night in the park while walking their dog by a vicious band of street punks.

Next, it's a pair of punks in the subway who rob an innocent person and then pull a gun on her.

Erica starts out innocently enough, defending herself against a robber who killed his wife.

"The Brave One" is painful to watch, but it's worthwhile.

As we know from television New York city has CSI investigators. I liked most of this movie. Otherwise minus these short comings it is a pretty good film overall. Jodi Foster does a great job as usual portraying a victim that fights back. Also, he should have GSR (gun shot residue) on his hand from pulling the trigger but he never fired the gun. But the ending left me wondering a few things.

And she is also vunerable as she exposes herself to danger in order to avenge those who can't or won't. Since Jodi Foster handled the clip as well as the gun, it would seem logical her prints might be on the gun parts not rubbed clean by the detective covering for her. A variation on the Charles Bronson movies of the 70's and 80's for revenge killings after a family member is killed. What prompted the detective to go to the scene of the crime since he had no real reason to go find that suspect again without new evidence. If evidence is collected from a triple murder as it might very well be, how did the last victim holding the murder weapon put a bullet into the back of his own head while laying on the floor. Just a few loose ends I think a good CSI would find.