I was talking with my girlfriend after the film and she said that she did not agree on what the film was promoting.  The film basically tells the audience that it is ok to seek violent vengeance on awful people, almost like a superhero would.  I will get to that later in the review. 

The Brave One stars Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs, Contact), Terrence Howard (Hustle and Flow, Four Brothers), Nicky Katt (The Way of the Gun, Boiler Room) and Naveen Andrews (“Lost”, Grindhouse). 

Below the surface, you have this character who has become a totally different person.  She runs into situations where she meets terrible people and feels the need to take the law into her own hands.  Terrence Howard plays a cop who happens to be investigating all the murders that Foster is committing.  To make things more complicated, Howard and Foster have both become friends.  Therefore, all the scenes when they are together are very tense and nervous.  Their chemistry is perfect though and I could not imagine better casting. 

The Review: Overall, the film has a very powerful message and makes even me question what I would do if I were put in Foster’s shoes.  My biggest complaint about the film was the superhero feel that they gave to Foster’s character.  It was almost like she was Spiderman or Superman.  They even portrayed what Foster was doing in the newspapers as a vigilante and someone who was cleaning up the bad people in New York City.  To tell you the truth, I don’t know what I would do if I were in her shoes.  If someone that close to me was beaten to death, would I want to seek revenge? 

The director of the film, Neil Jordan, has had some amazing past films but some of his directing choices in The Brave One were a little odd.  I didn’t like how he shot a lot of the scenes.  For example, he would have the camera behind a gate/fence.  It just became annoying after a while.  I will say though, that there was one scene where he made a genius decision.  He cut together a sex scene between Jodie Foster and her boyfriend with a scene of them being taken to the hospital and having their clothes removed.  Each scene contained a very similar action of an article of clothing being removed.  You had these two characters who absolutely loved each other and they had just been beaten up very badly.  Cutting the scene where they were having sex, into the scene where they were all bloody and beaten was just wild.  I have to commend him on the choice.