Dramarama: The Brave One

The Brave One (Warner Brothers, R)

Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) is living a quiet, contemplative existence in the city she loves, New York. She has a career as a talk radio host, a doctor fiance and big, lovable dog. But one night in the park will soon change that.

Erica and here fiance head out to walk the dog one night and get attacked by a group of thugs. After handing over all their possessions, they receive a brutal beating that leaves Erica comatose and her beloved dead.

The Brave One deals with what it takes for someone to regain the courage to venture out in a place where everything they've loved and held dear has been so horribly ripped from them. For Erica, that means arming herself and showing New York's criminals that they aren't always the boss.

The big debate here is whether or not Erica is doing the right thing. She starts off just wanting some way to feel safe, but quickly becomes a woman on a mission; looking in all the dark corners of the city for trouble to stop and wrongs to avenge.

Director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) does a fantastic job making us feel Erica's fear after the attack. In one scene, as she tries to leave her apartment for the first time since being released from the hospital, we see her apprehension. The walls of the long, narrow hallway leading to the outside slowly close in. The closer she gets to the door, the less she can see - the light from outside is so bright it's blinding. Eventually, we find Erica back in her home, knowing she couldn't find the strength to leave yet.

The performances in The Brave One are astounding. Foster is perfectly frail and broken as Erica, and she somehow maintains this even after she begins to defend the people of New York. We only see flashes of the anger that hides beneath. Terrence Howard does solid work as Detective Mercer, a man hot on the trail of the city's vigilante force.

Foster and Howard make for an interesting team. Their characters share a similar loneliness that has very different origins, and the audience can see them connecting on several levels. You can easily believe that if circumstances were different, they'd possibly be made for one another.

Watch for one particular instance near the end of the film (you'll know when you see it). This is a moment so cool it made me applaud and cheer in my own living room. And, think that just maybe, Erica and Mercer will find their way back to each other once the dust settles.

Foreignocity: The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (Sony Pictures Classics, R)

Most of us can live our lives basically the way we want to. You travel when and where you want, talk to who you like and ignore people you don't. But, the inhabitants of East Germany in '84 have no such luck.

The Stasi (East Germany's secret police) have the citizens on lockdown. Every move they make is liable to be recorded, written down or reported back to Stasi agents by an informant. Such is the case with popular playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch). His plays have always towed the socialist party line, but when a leading Stasi minister takes an interest in Dreyman's actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck), the order goes out to wire Dreyman's apartment and find something to pin on him.

Within days, long-time agent Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) begins to split his time between teaching at the Stasi school during the day and spying on Dreyman and Christa-Maria at night. But, the loyal Stasi soon finds himself becoming interested in their lives in ways he never dreamed of.

The Lives of Others paints a full, bleak picture of life in a closed society. In a world where every word and deed can come under scrutiny, there are no bright colors or crisp shapes. The film is colored beige, brown and tan; everything is well-worn and used to the end of its life. The paranoia seems to have seeped through and taken away all youth and joy.

Muhe is perfect as Wiesler. We get the feeling that the character would probably be just as unsociable and bland had be been raised in West Germany, which makes his actions even more perfect. For all his un-excitable ways, Muhe manages to imbue Wiesler with a subtle, growing spark. For instance, when Wiesler takes important evidence to a superior, we don't see that spark in his eyes, but in the way he holds the document.

The Lives of Others is filled with small, gem-like moments such as this one. And even though it stretches on a bit too long past the two hour mark, it's definitely worth your time.