Movie review: The Brave One

Jodie Foster stars as a Manhattan talk radio host, with everything to live for. She has a happy, loving relationship with her fiance, a job she loves and is successful with, and good friends. She loves the city, and her talk show revolves around it.

Then she and her fiance are brutally attacked. He's killed and she's in a coma for three weeks. She awakes to find that her fiance has been buried, and nothing is the same. Where once she felt safe, she now lives in fear.

She's driven to revenge and vigilantism. The police who hunt her assailant and her fiance's murderer now unknowingly hunt her as well, and she can't seem to control what she's become.

I find Foster to be believable in most everything. She has a direct, "this is how it is" manner, and inhabits her characters. If I could use one word to describe Foster, it's strength, and that is a common quality of the women she plays, even at their most vulnerable.

The villains here are all of a type. They revel in their cruelty to the point where street vengeance looks like justice.

As the detective assigned to her case, and to another high-profile suspect, Terrence Howard forms an interesting bond with Foster. While parts of the movie - particularly the conclusion - strain realism, the two manage to make their relationship and their understanding of each other work.

I liked the movie, and the questions it asks. All in all, a recommend.