Since Jodie Foster is one of my favorite actresses, I've always wanted to see "The Brave One." But while Foster gives it her all, she can't save a bad script with countless plot holes, poorly developed characters, and a confused message. So much of the story makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and key plot details often go unexplained. Although "The Brave One" is marketed as a vigilante movie, only the beginning and end actually deal with the protagonist's quest for revenge. The entire second act has almost nothing to do the basic premise and can be easily skipped over. The characters have little to no personality and exist only as stereotypes: Foster as the big city Bohemian, Terence Howard as the sympathetic cop, and all of the bad guys who are stock "gangster" characters that could've been copied and pasted from any other crime drama from the 2000s. "The Brave One" attempts to present a thoughtful depiction of violence and vengeance, but its message is contradictory: sometimes it tries to make Foster look just as bad as the people she's hunting, while at other times trying to justify her actions. The result is a muddled moral that tells the audience nothing meaningful about the themes the movie wants to address. Overall, while Foster is great "The Brave One" doesn't work as either art or entertainment. 5/10.
Review of The Brave One
