Full Review

The Brave One" (Warner Bros.) is a finely wrought piece of moviemaking: perceptively written, flawlessly acted, artfully visualized. Yet, for all its virtues, it remains a profoundly troubling film. This is the tale of Erica Bain (Jodie Foster), a New York radio personality with an enviable life. Her literate reflections on the history and culture of the metropolis have made her show, "Street Walk," popular with listeners, while her deeply loving relationship with her fiance, David Kirmani (Naveen Andrews), is a source of even greater satisfaction. Erica's precipitous descent into misery begins when she and David are brutally attacked while walking their dog in Central Park. David is killed and Erica is so grievously wounded that she remains in a coma for weeks. Although she slowly recovers from the physical effects of the incident, it seems that her psychological scars may never heal. Grieving for David and for their lost future together, and paralyzed by fear of the very streets she once loved to roam, Erica appears to have lost everything. Desperate to feel safe again, she illegally purchases a gun and begins to carry it. Although she first uses the weapon in self-defense, Erica gradually becomes a full-fledged vigilante, searching out wrongdoers and dispensing her own summary version of justice. As the mysterious vigilante (whom everyone assumes to be a man) starts to dominate the headlines, police detective Sean Mercer (Terrence Howard) becomes determined to hunt him down. A fan of Erica's show, Mercer turns to her for responsible coverage of the story. What starts out as a purely professional relationship, however, quickly flowers into something far deeper and more complex. "The Brave One" is an unsettling meditation on the corrosive effects of fear, and on the potentially even more destructive consequences of its complete absence. As directed by Neil Jordan, the film has virtually every element of a great work of art, with a single, glaring exception. In condoning some of the choices its characters make, "The Brave One" abandons -- and invites its audience to abandon -- that steadfast commitment to humane values without which neither art nor civilization itself can endure. The final minutes of the film in and of themselves -- not revealed here -- would preclude endorsement. The film contains brutal violence with blood and gore, some graphic sexual activity, rear and upper female nudity and outbursts of extremely rough language, as well as frequent crude and crass language. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.