The Brave One

A film about the bad things that happen when you let your dog off its lead...

Or maybe it's about the kind of provocation needed for well-meaning white collar citizens of the 'world's safest big city' to go to war with its underclasses? (OK, Foster does take out one rather unpleasant affluent bloke...just so that the class war aspects of her campaign of vigilante violence are not quite so blatant. )

We see how a radio presenter who has lived in a cocoon of complacency into her mid-forties has one very bad brush with NYC's rap-sheet roughs, which kind of opens the floodgates so that the city's low-life's are soon practically lining up to feel the lethal power of her vengeance. This social cleansing spree ends with a descent of sorts to the low-lifes' hellish lair where the original thugs (and the missing pooch) are finally tracked down. Roger Ebert said he detected "the slight aroma of a studio re-write" in this ending, which appears to leave open the (unlikely) possibility of a sequel.

The Brave One certainly seems to get cleverer as it goes along, but ultimately remains dumb to the core. The script and the performances from Jodie Foster and Terence Howard prevent this from becoming as obvious as it otherwise might. Enjoyable though, especially for those that enjoy mentally blowing away some of their least respectable fellow passengers on the Underground.