The Brave One, 2007

This was an amazing film! Even though you know what's going to happen, the story is riveting and gripping; you have to see exactly how what you know is going to happen happen.

Jodie Foster inbues her character with an intense depth that draws one right in. The story, obviously, is highly dramatic and pulls your strings. Don't watch this film expecting action sequences, but also, the scenes are so gruesom and energized that this is no drama, either. I was not overly convinced by Terrence's performance. Or perhaps the fault lies with his script. Or something.... He is very honorable, but the kind of honorable with a flaw. And I am biased towards Naveen, having seen him in other productions; his part was .... well, quite small in this one, but the story (and Jodie) magnified his presence in phenomenal ways.

I love how the plot drew me in. You know the story is about vengeance and vigilantes, you know hte good guys are going to win. But you just have to see how it all comes down. It touches on the morality of justice, a deep topic in any context. My one biggest problem is that this movie, like so many others, glorifies the individual, personal sense of what is right and what is not. It does not adhere to an absolute standard of justice. On the other hand, it also showcases the severe problems with the current legal system, especially the inability of the "upholders of the law", the police, to bring the guity before judgement. I love how Terrence's character (Mercer) said of such a problem that there is nothing legal he can do about it, but had to backtrack and rescind that statement. He opened up the window to his true thoughts, just a crack, and realized that what he said is not fit for the law he is supposed to represent. That is the grit of life.

The recurring theme (both in music and via the radio show) of "walking the streets" became powerful, and I am really glad the director/producer did that. I was enthralled how "walking the streets" irrevocably transformed into a stranger;

There is no going back, to that other person, that other place. This thing, this
stranger, she is all you are now.

There is something about that statement which resonates with the power of authority and truth about that. We are all changing, growing, becoming strangers on the streets we walk. We may try to stay the same, and we may see the same things around us, but people change.