Fosters fights back

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Variety's Anne Thompson seems to be of two minds about Jodie Foster doing Charles Bronson in Neil Jordan's The Brave One (Warner Bros., 9.14). On one hand she suspects that "some" will find depictions of Foster blowing away a succession of New York-area bad guys "very uncomfortable to watch," but on the other she finds it personally "exhilarating to watch Foster embrace a power usually only accorded to male actors."

So who's the "some" who might have a hard time with this film? The older and somewhat older female audience, right? And, I suppose, the teenage and twentysomething girly-girls who always squeal with laughter when they sit together in bars or at any Starbucks in any state. Guys will almost certainly have no problem with this film at all. Unless it's a problem movie in some other way.

"Women in mainstream Hollywood dramas rarely use guns," Thomson notes. "Outside of the action fantasy realm, they don't kill, and if they do, it's a crime of passion involving a husband or lover. And they don't kill repeatedly, for revenge.

"When The Brave One debuts at the Toronto Int'l Film Festival, some will view it as a response to the countless women in film who have been assaulted by violent men, from Foster's 13-year-old prostitute in Taxi Driver to her rape victim in The Accused, which won her the actress Oscar. In The Brave One, Foster fights back.

"I see the movie as in the great tradition of the 1970s anti-hero," Foster tells Thompson. "Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs or Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion. [This is a film in which] you're led, strategically and architecturally, through each killing. Where the line is that you wouldn't cross becomes extremely blurry."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 18, 2007 at 10:20 AM

comment #1

MovieBob says ...

Is movie REALLY so bad that they're ALREADY working the "if you don't like it you can't accept strong women" angle? Yikes. I mean, the trailer looks like a PARODY, but yeesh...

The thing is, Foster's bread-and-butter "I'm a strong not-to-be-effed-with female lead" schtick is STALE at this point. Female action-heroes are a STANDARD-ISSUE thing now, have been for years. Lara Croft, The Bride, the chicks from DOA, etc. are wiping out male enemies by the truckload in movie after movie; Foster once again cutting her hair to boy length, donning the unisex clothing, going sans-makeup and waving a pistol around isn't impressive anymore.

Posted by MovieBob at August 18, 2007 11:56 AM

comment #2

joncro says ...

i think that it's men who are supposed to be turned off by a woman with a gun....

Posted by joncro at August 18, 2007 12:33 PM

comment #3

erniesouchak says ...

The last thing I want to see is Foster playing yet another humorless-avenging-dykey-mom/sister/daughter/cousin type of role. She's been doing this since "Panic Room," except for her freakishly anomalous turn in "Inside Man" (serious miscasting), and she's become as boringly predictable as Sandra Buttock.

Posted by erniesouchak at August 18, 2007 1:12 PM

comment #4

Rod32303 says ...

Buch of whiny bitches the lot of you. How the fuck do you make assumptions from pictures, or even a trialer these days. I hope she blows it out of the water.

Neil Jordan is a hell of a director, and this doesn't appear to be the mom-on-a-mission crap that "Flightplan" and, to a lesser degree because Fincher is god, "Panic Room" was. I also think it's weightier than the Lara Croft bullshit.

And I loved what she attempted to do in "Inside Man." Those fucking stilletos were fierce.

Posted by Rod32303 at August 18, 2007 2:06 PM

comment #5

T. Holly says ...

Inside Man was Jodie last attempt to be glamourous, she's going Aileen Wuornos on us from here on out, and eventually, I hope she plays a lesbian in an indie film, for posterity sake. Her last good movie was The Accused.

Posted by T. Holly at August 18, 2007 2:26 PM

comment #6

D.Z. says ...

T. Holly: "Her last good movie was The Accused."

They made fun of that one in Perfect Blue.

Posted by D.Z. at August 18, 2007 2:48 PM

comment #7

WJ says ...

I think Flightplan (mind-numbing) and Panic Room (its success is due mostly to Fincher and some cool CGI) were a waste of Foster's talent, but I thoroughly enjoyed her performance in Inside Man. Her reaction to "you're a magnificent cunt" itself was worth the price of admission. And her last scene with Christopher Plummer was great as well.

I don't know if there's anywhere left to go with the Death Wish scenario. This film just seems like a variation on an old, tired theme.

Posted by WJ at August 18, 2007 2:56 PM

comment #8

lionsfan says ...

Not the warmest of actresses under any circumstances, she's simply not good enough to win audiences to her via charm. Ever. Which is why she has never (whatever her real sexuality) been able to do love scenes convincingly. And probably couldn't with either gender as a sexual partner. There's too much thin-lipped reserve there. In "Sommersby" Richard Gere seemed to be making love to a mirror (well, he always seems to be doing that, I know....). So she's turned to protecive-mama type roles where her compression of emotions might plausibly suggest she'll eventually explode. Emphasis on the word "might."

But the trailer for "The Brave One" is really silly and hints at a very predictable movie. I really did think it was going to be a remake of the old bullfighting movie, not a remake of Bronson's vigilantism classic. Saw this preview and the similarly themed Kevin Bacon "sureshot" (in both previews, there's of course a handgun- buying scene with a creepy purveyor of death by metal), "Death Sentence." And I'm sure both movies will die at the box office.

Posted by lionsfan at August 18, 2007 3:01 PM

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

I hope she starts using that gun on people who ask her why she won't come out of the closet.

Posted by BurmaShave at August 18, 2007 3:18 PM

comment #10

bmcintire says ...

We've become so readily accustomed to gunfire and shoot-outs in film, about the only way for this material to become truly disturbing/uncomfortable, would be if Ms. Foster was gunnng down other women. Aside from some sort of Grindhouse-cinema parody, it simply isn't done (or is at least extremely rare) in American film. I'm not sure what the set-up would have to be to sell tickets, but it would be an adventurous undertaking. And with the inevitable film-school credo of Gun=Phallus, Jodie would be the perfect leading lady.

Posted by bmcintire at August 18, 2007 4:00 PM

comment #11

BurmaShave says ...

Can we also address that, within her specific parameters, Foster is looking quite hot in this film?

Posted by BurmaShave at August 18, 2007 4:55 PM

comment #12

D.Z. says ...

She's "hot" in an Ellen Burstyn Exorcist kind of way...

Posted by D.Z. at August 18, 2007 5:04 PM

comment #13

frankbooth says ...

Is it just me, or does she look a bit like Angie Dickinson in that photo?

Posted by frankbooth at August 18, 2007 5:12 PM

comment #14

PerfectTommy says ...

T.Holly - Foster's last good film was The Accused?
I kind of liked a little indie film she did called "The Silence of the Lambs" that came after The Accused but not sure who else remembers that film.
I may be lonely in this, but I liked "Contact". It dealt with issues of faith that you read about in science fiction but don't often see in films.

Posted by PerfectTommy at August 18, 2007 8:30 PM

comment #15

Nate West says ...

No, Jodie. Travis Bickle is not an "anti-hero."

Posted by Nate West at August 18, 2007 8:33 PM

comment #16

Rod32303 says ...

She was IN that movie, Nate, and has stayed close to its director and main actor, so I'll accept her opinion before yours.

Posted by Rod32303 at August 18, 2007 9:55 PM

comment #17

T. Holly says ...

Hope she's smelly and magnificent in Toronto.

Posted by T. Holly at August 18, 2007 11:04 PM

comment #18

renorambler says ...

I also have a soft spot for Contact, T. Holly. The book is worth picking up as well. Too bad Matthew Mc was in it. I don't hate his work but he certainly didn't bring much to this film.

Posted by renorambler at August 19, 2007 11:30 AM

comment #19

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

"No, Jodie. Travis Bickle is not an 'anti-hero.'"

Uhhh, then what is he? Pretty much the textbook definition of anti-hero, from where I sit....

Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum at August 19, 2007 11:43 AM

comment #20

Bocephus says ...

Neil Jordan has never steered me wrong, Im gonna have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. And I like Holly Hunt...I mean Jodie Foster.

Posted by Bocephus at August 20, 2007 12:09 PM

comment #21

Arizona Joe says ...

I am sure Ms. Foster will make this an interesting film. She should have the right to shoot people in movies. I concur with other allusions to "Inside Man," which had a lot of stars, was half-baked, and had an uneven pace. I hope this is better.

Posted by Arizona Joe at August 22, 2007 2:00 AM

comment #22