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Jodie Foster stars as Erica Bain, a radio personality in New York City. She loves the town and walks, recording the sounds of the city for her radio program. “The safest city in the world” she believes.
Then one night while she’s walking Central Park with her fiance and their dog, they are attacked by three males. The fiance is beaten to death and she spends weeks in a near death state before pulling out.
It’s a whole different world out there now. Scared of her shadow, she ends up buying a gun for protection.
One evening, while in the back of a convenience mart, the clerk’s husband comes in and, in an argument, shoots her three or four times. Erica hides in fear while he’s rifking the cash register. Then her cell phone starts ringing.
Now the guy is stalking her through the store. In a confrontation, Erica manages, clumsily, to kill him first. She even has the wherewithall to take the security tape before she flees.
Horrified at first at what she’d done, she gradually gets control and realizes a little of the attitude is back. After the murder of her fiance, she’s no longer the innocent she’d been in the past.
You can guess what happens next. I was expecting the female version of Charles Bronson. You get that after a fashion, but there’s so much more. This is a story of a woman facing up to her new found fears with a primal rage. It’s not just a revenge thing. Then there’s an incident on the subway(shades of Bernard Goetz).
Terence Howard stars as the cop investigating the vigilante killings. He, a divorced man, and Erica make a connection, she interviewing him for her radio show. Which is also changing. She talks about her new feelings of the city, making a connection with listeners. Call-ins are the usual mix, for and against the vigilante.
Howard starts to suspect when an especially sleazy criminal is beaten with a tire iron and tossed off a bridge. He’d just spoken with Erica about his frustrations of pursuing this man for three years.
I quite enjoyed this movie. Erica’s final confrontation with the three men who murdered her fiance even had a couple of twists.
I’ve liked Jodie Foster’s films for a good many years(Contact is probably my favorite). Well worth a look for anyone who likes a good thriller. I thought it was more than just a shoot-em-up
