This past weekend I ended up seeing the Jodie Foster movie, The Brave One, which co-stars Naveen Andrews of Lost fame. Was the movie any good? Well no, not really, but that is what you get when you ignore the all-powerful tomato meter. The synopsis of the flick is as follows:
For Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), the streets of New York are both her home and her livelihood. She shares the sounds and the stories of her beloved city with her radio audience as the host of the show “Street Walk.” At night, she goes home to the love of her life, her fiancé David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews). But everything Erica knows and loves is ripped from her on one terrible night when she and David are ambushed in a random, vicious attack that leaves David dead and Erica close to it.
Though Erica’s broken body heals, deeper wounds remain–the devastation of losing David and, even more overwhelming, a suffocating fear that haunts her every step. The city streets she had once loved to roam, even places that had been warm and familiar, now feel strange and threatening.
When the fear finally becomes too much to bear, Erica makes a fateful decision to arm herself against it. The gun in her hand becomes a tangible way to protect herself from an intangible enemy…or so she thinks. [Link]
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p>As a couple, Foster and Andrews have zero chemistry. The one brief “sex scene” between them actually made me want to vomit (for reasons that are all too obvious if you watch the film). Still, my companion to the film noted that Andrews’ character was not exoticized in any way. The fact that he was desi was barely even acknowledged in the film. In fact, the only two references I caught included one quip about his mother worrying about the wedding invitations and a “Mughal” ring which served as an engagement ring and was pertinent to the plot of the story. So, even though the movie kind of sucked, I found it really refreshing that a desi actor was cast to play a character that was not required to “act Indian.” Unless you count the fact that he plays a doctor.
There is one other little coincidence (planned??) worthy of pointing out. The soundtrack to The Brave One features the luscious voice of Sarah McLaughlin at various points throughout the movie. She is married to a brown dude too. I’m just saying.
He gets killed off in like the first 10 minutes.
I haven’t watched the movie, and I have one question given that this is a Jodie Foster movie. Could someone please compare this with Taxi Driver? Is this like an “Iris grows up and becomes Travis Bickle” sort of movie?
Yes..that movie is on my “to see” list for this weekend. From the photograph and also the previews it appears that the guy is the same guy who acted as the debauched king in Mira Nair’s Kamasutra right ?
I have to admit, that when i saw the preview in theater, I prodded my friend and said, “look, brown man kissing white woman on screen…he’ll die soon” and was soon vindicated by the beat-down scene (setting up the insatiable thirst for revenge scenario).
Even though I would never go to see a movie billed as a straight-up romantic comedy, would it really be impossible to have a Gere or Hanks-style rom-com with a desi half of the relationship in question?
no, i don’t think jodie is paranoid or delusional like bickle was in taxi driver. this seems more like a remake of bronson’s deathwish, where he takes revenge for the murder of his wife and daughter by a bunch of hoodlums. i remember the scene where he uses rolls of quarters in a sock to administer brutal beatdowns, proving the age old adage that money is power.
speaking of yearning for all these avial movies, are black-white romances of lead pairs common in movies? not that i’ve been paying attention, but i do remember the pelican brief almost encounter between denzel and julia roberts where something would definitely have happened if they had both been the same race.
Well at least it is true to life with him where he prefers older women, though one wonders about Foster as she is rumored to be not into guys. I am surprised Neil Jordan is the director of this movie. Beware, one of the writers is Cynthia Mort who has given us HBO’s worst TV series since Arli$$ – Tell Me You Love Me. (The sheer torture one gets by its pretentious slow pace and annoying characters is something to be believed).
wonders? rumored? jodie foster is definitely gay. it’s an open secret in hollywood.
not only that, her previous girlfriend was half-desi and got mugged when they were on a date.
Somewhat strange then that it should be released so shortly after Death Sentence (Brian Garfield’s sequel to Death Wish – Chicago instead of New York, plus a woman). Bronson himself acted in several movie sequels to Death Wish that didn’t have book equivalents. Not that it mattered. But then, all vigilante movies start to look alike after a while.
Pelican Brief – I think Julia Roberts & Denzel Washington didn’t click because Julia Roberts liked boxers, not briefs.
on the other hand this movie is flipping gender roles–the woman is the protagonist in this revenge narrative.
yep that’s him. if you look at online fan communities for Lost, a lot of women seem to think he’s rly rly h0t.
o/t: apparently sarah mclachlan + her husband named their first kid ‘india’ (according to wikipedia). anyone else think that’s weird?
I remember Time or Newsweek had an interesting piece a few years ago (when Hitch came out); it basically said that a black-black casting for a romantic relationship turned the movie into “a black movie,” while a black-white relationship foregrounded the race issue, so there seemed to be a trend toward black-Hispanic pairings (like in Hitch), so that the movie would appeal to a wide audience and yet not be “about race.”
werd? how ‘previous’ was this.. i thought she’s had a long-term partner for a while?
To be followed by Juliet, Kilo and Lima. 😀
There’s some singer named India Arie who used to appear annoyingly high in Google searches for India. Doesn’t appear so high anymore.
Reference please??
Props to David(Naveen) for being well-“grounded”! (Apologies to Pankaj.) 😉
actually she was followed by ‘Taja.’ (ok i must confess i don’t quite get the joke?)
india arie’s parents were both african-american though (apparently her parents named her that in order to show admiration for mahatma gandhi, which is… admirable). i’d just expect someone whose family hails from india to be familiar with a wider variety of names, y’know?
For some reason, I could attach the movie to a Desi story, protagonist seeks revenge, takes law into his/her hands. btw Abhi, Naveen Andrews was a doctor in the movie AND he had a potbelly visible throug his scrubs 🙂
Oh no! Another Malcolm X post.
This film looks DOA.
nala, its aviation code- a-alpha b-bravo i-india j-juliet
I don’t think my system can take another JodieFoster-scared-angry movie.
i was completely making stuff up in an ultra-clever self-referential way (oh, and i am being sarcastic when i use those adjectives. and not sarcastic when i say i am being sarcastic. am i clear?). maybe i should have killed her in the mugging to make it more obvious?
I happened to wander through Prospect Park in Brooklyn the night they were shooting part of this movie there. It was some scene with Foster, Andrews and a dog. Not sure why I decided to share this info, but whatever.
Does nobody remember Mr. Andrews from Bombay Boys????
Just last week I was with a lesbian acquaintance who had once briefly dated Foster. She isn’t desi though.
Plus there’s Kevin Bacon’s new movie out – Death Sentence. It’s interesting how HW releases such movies in pairs. Last year, it was The Prestige and The Illusionist.
Well, within the top 100 google searches right now, is this cat called “india”
According to that link which is supposedly the “Biography of India”, the owners of “india” are “President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush”. Some more interesting info: India’s favorite sport is apparently “hiding from owners”.
(Google search result # 90 for India)
Saw the movie last week. Not many nice things I can say about it, but I drew some faint appreciation from the fact that the assault of Naveen Andrews’ character was not (inter)racially motivated. Anyone could have played that role and fared similarly (though a non-desi would probably get more screen time).
Jodie was just on the cover of Out magazine. Only as a mask, though — part of a feature called “The Glass Closet” http://www.out.com/detail.asp?id=22392 (sorry can’t hyperlink on this comp) She’s never denied that she’s gay nor stated it publicly. Lots of people feel like she should, but then again she’s pretty private about most of her life. Only she knows if it’s out of shame or a genuine desire to stay out of Fox’s news roundup. She started her career way early and she may not be where she is today if she had come out back in the day.
I don’t care if the movie sucks, I’m going to see it because she’s hot. I’d watch her even if she came out with Glitter. Oh wait, she never would. I thought Hannibal was brilliant. Posterity @27, would this acquaintance of yours care to make introductions?
It’s spelled Sarah McLachlan. I’m just saying 🙂
In 2007 it’s good to be a middle class brown dude in America.
Just install that extra-handy brain-to-finger interface that serves everyone else so well. It is patently obvious to anyone who has ever tried to communicate anything over such an impersonal medium as a message board that all humorous expressions needs to be a bit over the top to be differentiated from the non-humorous statements of others.
but doesn’t the screen time factor outweigh the director/writer’s decision to not make it a racially motivated attack? This is like being gracious for a hot tar facial instead of the usual sulfuric acid masque.
well, Abhi, to be analytical (and rob your sentence of the intended humor, my bad) I would have to point out that lucky Ashwin Sood was her touring drummer for five years and BFFFFF for two. Touring on the road with anyone, on a schedule similar to a major recording artist, is due to either forever separate to bond people. I think Sood and McLachlan are no different.
also, if my meal-ticket for the past 5 years was to pop the question to me, I’d have little difficulty in giving a quick affirmative< “Yes, yes I’ll be Mr. Corporation XYZ!”
Kirmani eh? Abhi, I highly recommend Kabhi Ajnabi Thay. It has a real life Kirmani and brings together your two great loves. Bollywood and cricket.
Abhi, you mis-spelled Sarah McLachlan. I saw the movie too. I liked it except the ending. The women around me were actually clapping and cheering the end. Personally, I thought the casting of Naveen Andrews was done just to remove any racial overtones to the movie (the people who attacked them were hispanics).
I have not seen the movie, but in the previews it seemed like Foster was handing the beat-down to a whole slew of minorities. My knee-jerk reaction was that the boyfriend role was written to be a minority as an excuse for the latter black-latino bashing that follows. However like i said it was just the preview, and I did not watch the movie.
David Kirmani didn’t strike me as an Indidan sounding name. Is Kirmani a common name somewhere in India that I’m unaware of? If not, I wouldn’t be surprised if Andrews didn’t play the stereotypical Indian. Unless of course, it is obvious in the movie that he is Indian via his parent’s looks and dress.
Syed Kirmani was wicket keepr fro teh Indian cricket team for many years
I think Kirmani is a Ismaili last name, to be honest I have never heard of another Kirmani besides Syed.
David Kirmani is a Christian/Jewish and Muslim combo. Reminds me of a dialogue from the film Jalwa; “Mera maa Christian, mera baap Hindu, aur main cocktail.”
Yes, Syed Kirmani was arguably India’s best gloveman.
Uh, can I get some of your suspicious cop/scared-looking-white-people-on-the-subway repellant?
Was watching Charlie Rose – was hilarious to see Jordan and Foster try to cast the movie as some high faluting research into good and evil. He prodded Foster about the silly title. Have heard she did not like it but Joel Silver is too big to be crossed.
If you close your eyes, Foster sounds like Etheridge. Just saying 🙂
This is true. BUT, I saw the movie in a theater primarily filled with minorities, most of them African American, and they were the loudest at applauding with approval when the “young black thug” characters got whacked.
I think his character was Christian.
d00d, you shouldn’t go around spreading rumors like that!
hee. i agree with you. and honestly, the thing about her fiancee getting killed makes me wonder about the whole ‘asian men are less masculine than white men, who are less masculine than black men’ thing. (here’s a blogger’s take on ‘minority issues’ in this movie that #36 also mentioned.)
as for whether there will be a desi equivalent to richard gere or tom hanks… please no!! i’d much prefer a desi equivalent to michael vartan or even jake gyllenhaal.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but from some reviews I’ve been given to understand that we aren’t necessarily supposed to be cheering for Jodie Foster’s character by the end? Am I giving the movie way too much credit by suggesting her descent into vigilantism could be seen as morally ambiguous?
She’s never denied that she’s gay nor stated it publicly. Lots of people feel like she should, but then again she’s pretty private about most of her life. Only she knows if it’s out of shame or a genuine desire to stay out of Fox’s news roundup. She started her career way early and she may not be where she is today if she had come out back in the day.
Not only that – I personally give Jodie Foster a huge pass on being so private about her personal life, considering a dude shot the president because he was obsessed with her. I can see how that would make a person super-paranoid about giving fuel to the crazy fans.
I watched “one Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” recently and I was ** very** surprised to see that there was a desi doctor among the group that pronounces the Jack N. character McMurphy psychotic.
The movie was supposed to be set in 1963 — didn’t know we had an acknowleded presence in medicine even back then.
That desi doctor uncle was Sanjay or something.
how else would they get started then? somebody’s got to do it.
i mean, perez hilton didn’t step up to the plate on this one.
Just a bit of trivia for you, 11:51 – Mountbatten’s granddaughter is also named India (google India Hicks). Given that this is SM, I’m assuming everyone’s familiar with Lord (and Edwina) Mountbatten?