Director Neil Jordon (THE CRYING GAME), along with top-notched performances from Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard, takes many of the conventions of the revenge thriller and weaves them into a sad reflection on lose and violence. The emotional honesty for 99% of the running time moves the viewer over the contrivances. When the build up began for the final revenge shootout, I wasn't rooting for the vigilante; I was scared for her, because her anger had now clouded her good judgment.
Erica Bain (Foster) is a radio talk show host, who tries to capture the sounds and sense of New York City. She is about to marry doctor David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews, TV's LOST) until they are attacked viciously by three men during a walk in Central Park one night, leaving her in a coma and her fiancé dead. After her recovery, Erica has a hard time adjusting to her old life. After a long period isolated in her house, she wills herself to leave, buying a gun for protection. Then late one night, Erica gets in the middle of an act of violence, leading to her shooting a man. From this point forward, she unconsciously then consciously goes looking for violent confrontations. Detective Mercer (Howard, HUSTLE & FLOW) is a lonely cop, who is frustrated with a system that lets criminals go free. He is assigned to catch the new vigilante killer plaguing the streets of NYC. A twist of fate brings Erica and Detective Mercer together. They form a friendship, but will it last once he begins to suspect her?
Foster brings an honesty to the role that is remarkable. She conveys Erica's pain and lost without theatrics. Anybody could have created the building anger, but Foster makes Erica far more complex than just someone hell bent on raging against the uncaring establishment. Howard too brings a quiet sadness and resentment to his divorced cop. As a fan of Erica's radio show, Howard subtly underlies his early actions with a sense of star stuck awe. The pair work well together, really working off each other's lines perfectly.
Now many of the naysayers will point out the similarities to other exploitative revenge flicks along with the contrivances. I must admit that for a person who even states that violence has never touched her life until now, she sure finds a lot of it after her initial attack. However, the emotions that the plot creates are worth exploring. Her lashing out at society is understandable, even if it is reckless. It's in that recklessness that the film slips up. There is a sequence with a man holding a young girl hostage that hints at the price her personal war on crime can cause, but it never takes it as far as it should. The ending goes where too many of these films have gone before, almost betraying everything that preceded it. The actions of the characters aren't completely out of the range of possibility, but they're close.
In the end, the film is a flawed success that maddens because it dips too close to the genre's conventions when it should be playing off of them. When it's seriously addressing the issues, the film takes on a haunting and thought-provoking message. However, the clichés pull the film back down into its B-movie origins. The finished film is still a smart and sad thriller, but what could have been great settles for only being good.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
