The Brave One

I have always admired Jodie Foster, as an actress and a human being. She is a private person, highly intelligent, and she has made some really important films about women empowering themselves. The images from "The Accused" stayed with me for a long time afterward.

Her segue into middle age has been far more graceful than the typical "Babe into district attorney" journey. She has played characters as varied as a backwards feral girl in "Nell" to a brilliant scientist in "Contact." She has only done about 8 films in the last 8 years. Maybe there weren't enough good scripts around. [I am looking forward to seeing "Nim's Island" which opens this weekend.]

The kids and I watched "The Brave One" [TBO] tonight. It was far more graphically violent than I had realized. It was also riveting. I kept expecting Foster's character's facade to crack, but it didn't. She sustained a level of horrifying believability. I have to admit, I thought the actor who played her fiance was very unattractive and looked like he needed a bath. It was hard to see the attraction. However, that was a minor flaw.

Terrence Howard as Detective Mercer really held his own with Foster. He is excellent. He took sort of a standard issue cop role and made the character very real.

I am sort of shocked that more people didn't see TBO. It's an excellent thriller - thoughtful, intelligent, and shockingly contemporary. My kids were rooting for her character, a vigilante, from the get go. They never saw the subleties and moral dilemmas, which were obvious to me.

The ending was troubling. I liked it, but I sort of hated myself for liking it? I don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen the movie.

I hope Jodie continues to find good scripts and bring fascinating characters and intelligent stories to life.