The Brave One (Dir: Neil Jordan)

(Spoiler Heavy)

Is this film to be viewed with ironic detachment or total sincerity? In the movie's closing moments, 9mm toting once conflicted vigilante Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) emerges from the dark Central Park tunnel where she was brutally assaulted earlier in the film. Baptized by blood, Erica joins her newly freed dog while a dreamy Sarah McLachlan ballad escorts us into the credits. This moment is triumphant and is a repudiation of the comeuppance we expected Erica to receive for her vengeful indulgence.

Like the finale of The Sopranos where we expected Tony to finally be whacked to pay for his many sins, we expect Bain to be brought down by good guy Detective Mercer (Terrence Howard). But the film subverts these expectations and sanctions Erica--if Mercer is the film's moral beacon--freeing her to continue her fight for justice unencumbered by the bureaucratic knots of the police and courts. Is this film a fascist paean or a sly repudiation of fascism? I was repelled by Erica to some extent, but her acts of vengeance are fetishized by Jordan as the bullets enter the victims in close up. These carefully staged action scenes give the viewer, as exploitation films do, some satisfaction which we can either choose to feel guilty about or indulge in.

Given the evidence on screen, I can only guess that Jordan has crafted a straightforward exploitation flick. And maybe without the direction of master craftsmen Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa), viewers would be less apt to troll for subtext. If not for the great performance by Howard and the electric moments he shares with Foster, the film would not be nearly as watchable. A serviceable exploitation film that engrosses, but not much else.