Jodie Foster continues her movie career as a tough female battling the bad guys of society in this gritty thriller from director Neil Jordan. The movie shows us the psyche of a woman who is traumatized by seeing her husband beaten to death and beaten herself, staring death in the face. When she becomes healthy, awakening from a coma, she starts life over as a bit of a stranger, a vigilante who wants to rid the world of all the hateful people.

This movie provides the viewer an interesting consideration as others have in the past allowing the viewer to question if doing unlawful things as a vigilante to bring justice to the world is in fact just. The movie is put together in such a way that it is hard not to root for Foster’s character. The viewer wants these bad guys killed, not placed behind bars. Foster does an excellent job as the anti-hero. Terrence Howard plays the cop who finally realizes who she is and ultimately questions himself what true justice is. The movie is stylish in direction trying to help the audience feel what it feels like to be a victim of such a crime. Even Foster’s character states that she had no idea what a victim felt like until she became one herself. The movie and Foster succeed in helping the audience understand this feeling.

Neil Jordan creates a dark world full of cynicism thru Foster’s character’s eyes. He also provides a commentary on what he believes people think about vigilantes. The movie brings up questions of gun control; should a woman get a gun for revenge, in order to protect herself and waive the 30 day waiting rule? Is a black market gun worth it to save a person’s life? If you are willing to deal with the consequences, the risk could be worth it. And as the title says, this could make the person “brave.”

The brave one really is the writer and director for providing this movie to audiences. In a time of terrorism when people generally do not feel safe and feel like their hands are tied, should we do what is necessary to keep us all safe even if it means to break a law to bring justice? The movie does a great job in influencing the viewer to really consider what is going on in our world today and for that, we should give it applause for showing us all how to be brave.

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