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.