I missed it, so there is a good chance you may have been subject to the same thing. This film isn't exactly unique because there are plenty of revenge films out there but I would say that there where the lead does as good a job capturing the emotion as Jodie Foster does.
This theme has been done so many times that it is difficult to make it unique and in that regard the theme actually is NOT unique but the way in which Foster shows the transition a person can make after being horribly wronged by criminals and then the transition they make to becoming a criminal themself is done exceptionally well by Jodie as she totally nails the character of Erica Bain.
Erica was a soft-spoken, kind of introverted person who is on the verge of getting married and everything seems perfect until they end up in the wrong part of Central Park at night in New York. An unspeakable crime occurs and results in her being badly beaten and robbed, her dog stolen, and her fiance beaten to death as he attempts to defend her.
From that point forward we see Erica slowly transition from mourning and fearful to angry and vengeful and he rage isn't necessarily focused on people that have wronger her personally, but it starts out with her being caught in a situation where she must kill or be killed and it progresses to her seeking out situations to eliminate awful people such as thugs that harass and rob strangers on the subway.
This movie will appeal to everyone that has ever been in a big city because even though you almost certainly haven't been victimized on the level shown in this film, big cities like this have a lot of potentially dangerous situations and to see the perpetrators get worked by someone that they completely wouldn't expect it from (a tiny white woman) is pretty refreshing.
This movie probably wouldn't be allowed today because all but two of the "bad guys" are minorities in the film.
Like I hinted at before the story inside this movie isn't terribly compelling and it has been done many times before and after this released in 2007. The film is great because Jodie Foster is such a tremendous actress. Terrance Howard is no slough either and his role as a police detective was almost as great as Foster's.
A film with basically the same setup and I believe was a slightly better film called Death Sentence starring Kevin Bacon came out in the same year as this one and neither one of them were considered terribly successful. The K. Bacon one lost money.
They are both great films but only one of them is on Netflix for most regions and that is The Brave One. If you like slow-burner crime thrillers with a lot of emotion provided by a fantastic actress, I say fire this one up as soon as possible!
