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The Brave One

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The Brave One (2007)

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Reviews Counted:33

Fresh:13

Rotten:20

Average Rating:5.6/10

Consensus: Magnetic by between Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard can't quite compensate for The Brave One's problematic and unconvincing eye-for-an-eye moral.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for strong violence, language and some sexuality.

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Genre: Justice, Thriller, Theatrical Release, New York City, Revenge

Theatrical Release:Sep 14, 2007 Wide

Box Office: $36,765,734

Synopsis: For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the... For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show "Street Walk." At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiance David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it. Though Erica's broken body heals, deeper wounds remain--the devastation of losing David and, even more overwhelming, a suffocating fear that haunts her every step. The city streets she had once loved to roam, even places that had been warm and familiar, now feel strange and threatening. When the fear finally becomes too much to bear, Erica makes a fateful decision to arm herself against it. The gun in her hand becomes a tangible way to protect herself from an intangible enemy...or so she thinks. The first time she shoots someone, it is kill or be killed. The second time is also in self-defense...or did she make a choice not to take herself out of harm's way? The fear that had once paralyzed her has been replaced by something else...something that drives her to reclaim the life that was taken from her that night...something that Erica does not even recognize in herself. Stories of an anonymous vigilante grip the city, and NYPD detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) becomes increasingly determined to track down the killer. As he pieces together the clues, the evidence begins to point not to a guy with a gun...but a woman with a grudge. With Mercer closing in and her own conscience trying her, Erica must decide whether her quest for some form of justice, and even vengeance, is truly the right path, or if she has become the very thing she is hunting. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster ("The Silence of the Lambs," "The Accused") and Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow," "Crash") star in "The Brave One." The film is directed by Academy Award winner Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game") and produced by Joel Silver ("The Matrix" trilogy, "V For Vendetta") and Susan Downey ("Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"). The main cast also includes Naveen Andrews (TV's "Lost," "The English Patient") as David, Erica's fiance; Nicky Katt ("Grindhouse") as Mercer's partner, Detective Vitale; and Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen ("Melvin and Howard") as Carol, Erica's boss at the radio station. Jordan directed "The Brave One" from a screenplay by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort, story by Roderick Taylor & Bruce A. Taylor. Herbert W. Gains, Jodie Foster, Dana Goldberg and Bruce Berman served as executive producers. The behind-the-scenes creative team included Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot ("A River Runs Through It"), marking his fourth collaboration with Jordan, production designer Kristi Zea ("The Departed"), Jordan's longtime editor Tony Lawson ("Michael Collins," "The End of the Affair"), costume designer Catherine Thomas ("Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2") and Oscar-nominated composer Dario Marianelli ("Pride & Prejudice"). "The Brave One" is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Silver Pictures Production. "The Brave One" has been rated R by the MPAA for strong violence, language and some sexuality. --© Warner Bros [More]

Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt

Starring: Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews, Nicky Katt, Mary Steenburgen

Director: Neil Jordan

Director: Neil Jordan
Screenwriter: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor, Cynthia Mort
Story: Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor
Producer: Joel Silver, Susan Downey
Composer: Dario Marianelli
Studio: Warner Bros.

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Release:

Feb 5, 2008

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Reviews for The Brave One

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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The Brave One is not merely the most morally repellent film of the year, but a contender for the stupidest.

Full Review Source: New Republic | comment 1 Comment
09/22/08
Christopher Orr
Christopher Orr
New Republic
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The fire goes out long before the film ends.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
09/20/07
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
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I think The Brave One could have been a better film with a different ending, but it’s still a well-crafted, thought-provoking story with outstanding performances.

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
09/18/07
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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Foster does her best with a flawed story whose ending rings even less true than the rest of it.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
09/14/07
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
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Uncertainty helps keep The Brave One on its toes.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
09/14/07
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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You long for all this combined talent to be in the service of something more deserving than a retread of a story that has lost the edge it had 33 years ago.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
09/14/07
Ruthe Stein
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
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Clever, calculated, 'responsible' filmmaking.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
09/14/07
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
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Worth watching for Foster's fiercely arresting performance.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
09/14/07
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post
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Two terrific lead actors under the direction of the estimable Jordan aren't enough to overcome the proven axiom that although you can make a bad movie from a good script, you can't make a good one from a bad one.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
09/14/07
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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Less a brave movie than a foolhardy one. Trapped in a no man's land between seriousness and pulp trash, it plays like a combination of Death Wish and The Hours. If that sounds like an awkward fit, it is.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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It's lily-livered narrative cowardice, and I reject it.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
09/14/07
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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It is vengeance porn dressed up as an important film, a reverse slasher movie feigning some weak pretense of meaning beyond its own bloodlust.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
09/14/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
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The Brave One is as bold a movie as we are likely to see this year, a movie that has more in common with 1970s provocations like Straw Dogs and Taxi Driver.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
09/14/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
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What the screenwriters don't achieve in dialogue, director Jordan often delivers visually. He and his cinematographer employ a particularly powerful way to evoke Erica's resurfacing. It resembles a slow blink; it suggest a brain grappling to make sense.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
09/14/07
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
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Psychological suspense is what makes The Brave One spellbinding. The movie doesn't dine out on action scenes, but regards with great curiosity how these two people will end up.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
09/14/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
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What might have been a serious drama about coming to terms with violence and loss turns into a crowd-pleasing and increasingly far-fetched remake of Death Wish.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
09/14/07
J. R. Jones
J. R. Jones
Chicago Reader
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The Brave One is oppressively plot-driven. All the mood is snuffed out. The filmmakers so want Erica's actions to make sense to us that the movie usually seems illogical despite itself.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
09/14/07
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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An ugly, manipulative mess.

Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | comment Comment
09/14/07
Bill Goodykoontz
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic
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Because it wants the applause both of the chatting classes and the blood crowd, The Brave One doesn't take a firm position about vigilantism.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment 1 Comment
09/14/07
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
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A seventies' revenge movie with a woefully unconvincing patina of intellectual justification, The Brave One is the sort of genre movie that gets more credit than it deserves.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
09/14/07
Leah McLaren
Leah McLaren
Globe and Mail
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Latest News for The Brave One

February 04, 2008: RT on DVD: The Brave One, Assassination of Jesse James Fire Onto DVD
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