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eyes when he replies, "Nothing that's legal."

The thing that kept this movie from being a standard revenge story, which would be fun but not particularly enlightening or enlightened, is that her conscience is fully visible to the viewer. Her internal monologue is broadcast to us by her radio show. It is there that we hear the fear and desperation put into words. She's changing into "the stranger," a strong presence throughout the film. One that is equal parts violent calculating killer and cowering victim. "The fear," she tells her listeners "belonged to other people, weaker peoplewomen who won't walk home alone at night"

The triumph of this movie, under Neil Jordan's direction, is that the audience feels as conflicted as its central character. They don't know whether to cheer for her, help her load the gun or throw her in jail. Erica scolds the audience at the exact moment they're internally yelling "Kill him!" They feel her cold disapproval as she cuts off the callers on her radio show for putting into flippant words the various thoughts that are running through us

Another departure from a standard revenge flick is the appreciated (by this reporter) feminist undertone. Erica is able to fly under the radar for so long due to a pervasive assumption that "the guy taking the law into to his own hands to clean up the streets" is just that, a guy. Possibly because the police are searching all over town for a Bernhard Goetz, the 1984 "subway vigilante" on whom a lot of this movie seems to be based. Erica's African neighbor seems to be the only one who acknowledges an uncomfortable truth that drives this powerful and disturbing film, "anyone can be a killer."

Learn more about this author, Holly Huffstutler.
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