The Brave One

A Manhattan radio host (Jodie Foster) barely survives a Central Park attack that leaves her fiance (Naveen Andrews) dead. She fearfully buys a black-market gun for self-defense, but comes to use it for vigilante justice. Roderick Taylor, Bruce A. Taylor and Cynthia Mort’s script is standard vengeance-is-mine stuff, gussied up with hifalutin pseudo-profundity (Foster’s breathy FM radio rambles are particularly Joan-Didionic). Foster’s intensity is gripping, but the character comes off as a cold fish—even in the early happy scenes and flashbacks, where she seems to be playacting at warmth and passion. Neil Jordan directs at a solemn trudge, like a barstool philosopher who’s had a few too many. Terrence Howard plays a sympathetic cop, and Mary Steenburgen has a couple of scenes as Foster’s boss.