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Foster's ‘The Brave One' tough to watch at times

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Jodie Foster and I are close to the same age. Actually, I am three years older, but I like to think I look as good as she. I have followed her career since her Coppertone sunblock days - Disney films, “Taxi Driver” and so on. Although I don't rank her as high on my acting scale as Meryl Streep, Jodie can hold her own on the screen and when she chooses a good film, she rocks. I'd like to say that “The Brave One” marks a brilliant turn in Foster's career, but while it is engaging for the most part, it lacks the realism and intensity necessary to completely impress me and foster (pun intended) my love for the thriller genre.

Foster plays Erica Bain - New Yorker and NPR-like talk radio show host, whose boyfriend (played by Naveen Andrews, looking as though he walked straight off the set of “Lost” and into a set of clean clothes) gets killed during a brutal, vicious attack by random thugs in Central Park. Erica survives, but is left in a coma. Director Neil Jordan thankfully and cleverly chooses to film the attack with a handheld video camera (wielded by one of the assailants), but even with this shaky effect, the scene is gut wrenching. I don't consider myself squeamish, but during these seemingly long moments in the film, I honestly cringed. When Erica awakens, she discovers that the street swine have taken her love and her life and even her German shepherd. It would have been nearly impossible for me - as a passionate animal lover - to have stayed in the theater if the men attacked the pooch too.

Anyway, I digress. Once back in her empty apartment, Erica is haunted both by her joyful memories of David and nightmares of the horrid night that changed her world forever. Angry, distrustful, shaken and disheartened, Erica is horrified by the downfall of her beloved city - the “safest big city in the world;” she decides to take matters into her own hands. She buys a gun illegally and proceeds to place herself in positions where danger lurks at ever dark turn. At first, she becomes noted as just a common anonymous vigilante, praised by some and spurned by others. From our standpoint, she is an infuriated woman who can barely hold a gun much less hit a target. But in short shrift, she finds her focus and her aim, and her murderous work draws the attention of a world-weary, cynical detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard). Their developing friendship offers some of the film's most interesting scenes - save the ones where Bain is blowing baddies away. They engage in a friendly game of silent pursuit and avoidance accented by ferocious foreshadowing, syrupy sentimentality, and a bloodbath of bad guys, culminating in a finale so full of forensic holes, I could drain my pasta with it. Still I enjoyed the pair's performance. All at once, Mercer suspects Bain and wants to protect her and help her drive away the anger and pain. Foster is astute at expressing Erica's darker alter ego and the anguish of a woman whose life is torn apart by violence. Foster's character smacks a bit of Iris in “Taxi Driver,” where as a very young woman she truly proved her talent.

Jordan - assisted by Philippe Rousselot's stunning cinematography - should be commended for his efforts in creating a dark, passionate film, but shame on screenwriters Roderick Taylor and Bruce A. Taylor for not trying to create a more realistic storyline. Jordan's style is visceral and severe, and despite the Taylor's gap-filled script, he manages to build a somewhat suspenseful story and to keep things fairly intense and entertaining, but never is the plot particularly plausible.

I did stay involved and curious throughout the film, but in its final moments, “The Brave One” lost me and let me down so much that I forgot about what I liked in the first place. I am a huge fan of forensic science and watch shows like “Forensic Files” and “CSI” religiously and I read many books on the subject, so while I am in no way an expert, I do pay attention - and I can tell you that Taylor and Taylor do not. In an effort to not offer a spoiler at this point, I will shut my metaphorical mouth.

Foster and Howard should be given credit for their fantastic and driven performances, and as noted, Jordan makes some seductive and impressive choices. For a while the R-rated “The Brave One” held my attention and its cast did for the whole film, but I cannot look past its faults to place higher than a C+ in my gradebook. I am not saying “The Brave One” is a total waste of time; in fact, I am certain some will find it acceptable. It just did not impress me as much as I had hoped.

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