Trade

Rating: 3/5

This movie is based on an article in the NEW YORK times about the trafficking of children for sexual purposes.

This is quite a moving film and, although it's easy to argue the case, it does not exploit the kids itself in its effort to expose the horrors of child exploitation. While it has some Hollywood moments thrown in for commercial appeal, it's still as compelling as any film I've seen recently. The acting is frighteningly real. A good part of the film is a bit of a road movie where Kline and the boy bond -- he needs a male role model, Kline's life on the road is a lonely existence, you know the drill. Kline's relationship with the boy reminded me of his pairing with Hayden Christensen in "Life as a House." He's good at it, and it's a casting coup that helps put the icing on the cake. The other part of the film focuses on the harsh reality of child trafficking and follows several victims through their ordeals. But Kreutzpaintner's narrative never loses sight of its heartbreaking subject matter.

Yes, the film is overlong and borders a bit too closely on soap opera techniques, but the acting is so committed and the story is news so important that any flaw in the film can be forgiven because it opens the door to a crime that is all too unfamiliar to most citizens. It is a true story and therein lies the terror

The Brave one

Rating: 3/5

THE BRAVE ONE makes a fatal mistake from its first frame by trying to be much more than it actually is: a B-movie exploitation film. Yes, it's got A-level talent before (Jodie Foster, The Hunting Party) and behind (Neil Jordan) the camera, but its script is so derivative of every vigilante movie ever made, that it literally lifts scenes from two of the genres best: DEATH WISH and TAXI DRIVER. Both those films worked so well, and became deserved classics, because the filmmakers knew exactly what kind of stories they were trying to tell.

If not for Jodie Foster's presence, I probably wouldn't bother watching "The Brave One" (even though I admire most of Neil Jordan's films). It's easy to call this a morally sick movie, because that's what is... but it's not sicker than any other bloody action thriller out there. Watching a "fragile" woman like Foster becoming Charles Bronson in skirts is both entertaining and (questionably) gratifying. Who's never fantasized: what if I could just kill all the scum around me?

In between blood-letting, Foster's radio host records introspective monologues on her tape recorder about the primal nature of man, and other lofty subjects. The film's best moments occur between Foster and Howard, who do have a few interesting talks about the idea of vigilantism, but it's not enough icing for the entire cake. In attempting to merge the sensibilities of TAXI DRIVER and DEATH WISH, two very strong films that still hold up 30 years later, THE BRAVE ONE winds up giving birth to a bastard child with no real identity of its own. It is neither entertaining, nor meaningful enough to stand as an updated statement on the vigilante genre that DEATH WISH spawned in 1974, and TAXI DRIVER (should have) ended in 1976.