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Neil Jordan cemented himself as a director to watch in 1992 with his highly controversial film The Crying Game, a film known for its subversion of gender roles. Jordan's latest picture, The Brave One, seeks to repeat this pattern it is essentially oestrogen-induced revenge fare, a Death Wish minus the testosterone, if you will, with a slight dash of Falling Down to it, also.

Whilst the concept of a female protagonist violently avenging social injustices is a breath of fresh air, Jordan almost falls at the first hurdle in painting a portrait of happy families in soon-to-be husband and wife Erica (Jodie Foster) and David (Naveen Andrews). The idea of tragedy strikes the perfect couple became redundant decades ago, yet directors and writers still insist on exploiting it.

Nonetheless, the plot moves forward fairly quickly, and fortunately, for want of a better term, the idyllic paradise is soon enough usurped. In a brutal attack, David is killed, and Erica is left in a coma, and I move to applaud Jordan's gritty and visceral filmmaking approach. Furthermore, in the subsequent hospital scenes, as the doctors race to save their lives, Jordan holds nothing back he shows blood-smeared breasts, and does so without it appearing either gratuitous or exploitative, but simply raw.

The initial stages of the film are not free of contemplative, broodish scenes, and whilst they do hurt the pace of the film, causing it to plod along, considering how well Jordan knows the camera, and how competently shot these interludes are, they seem neither superfluous nor tiresome. Moreover, they are few and far between in this picture. It can be said as a general rule, in fact, that the film is expertly shot the constantly rotating camera gives an ubiquitous feeling of unease, and reinforces Erica's own trepidation about venturing back into the outside world.

There are times when The Brave One almost appears to be criminalising the police themselves, or rather, the proceduralism of their line of work. It is this concept that essentially kick-starts Erica's rampage, but I'm pressed to consider whether the system really is to blame, as, after all, is it really feasible to levy a cost-effective replacement?

As strong as the film by-and-large is, what bothered me most in the film's establishing scenes is how quickly and coincidentally Erica is thrown into a situation whereby she is able to utilise her gun (which she illegally purchased). It feels very contrived, yet one can almost forget this when

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