The Brave One (2007, USA)

I'll admit it - I fell asleep. My boyfriend asked how I could honestly review The Brave One given this fact, so I'll try to keep this to the first hour or so. Very rote direction and writing. I'm disappointed in Neil Jordan, who has made some really good films, and rarely makes conventional ones. Everything just unfolded with such certainty, which I felt uncomfortable about given the treatment of the subject matter - the controversy, for me, ended up being in the inevitability of the plotline. Shouldn't there have been more hesitation surrounding Jodie Foster's character transformation from victim to vigilante? In some ways, there wasn't really any transition, like a whole quarter hour plus was chopped out between the hospital bed and the first revenge killing. Perhaps spending more time with Foster's character and less on Terrence Howard could have helped. In any case, I only have a vague understanding of what happened in the second half, but as I didn't feel at all interested in rewatching to find out, I count this film as a failure. A big disappointment, to be honest.