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.