This should be burned and the ashes buried

An old idea rehashed and tricked out with a ludicrous plot and some very bad messages which only made me angry.

The only beauty in this film lies in the monologues. That's where it begins and ends for me. The sadness and loss in Erica's voice is heartbreaking and Jodie Foster has a voice with a smoky sensuousness, laden with emotion and vulnerability that is unparalleled in our time; "... eight hairpins made out of bones. That Elouise." Tore me apart.

By contrast this film had so much revulsion, in its message and in its modus. When Mercer (Terrence Howard) tells Erica (Jodie Foster) that his hands didn't shake when he killed someone because he was on the "right" side of the law, thereby implying that Erica's murderous behaviour was at least forgivable, I was so angry I wanted to throw up. That message is just the ticket for any wannabe vigilante with a gun and a sense of inadequacy.

The plot dances around the realities (exponentially increasing skill with a gun, no screaming agony from the victims just clean fatal shootings, no bystanders, etc) as though they're irrelevant so it can get to the "good bits". Initially I had sympathy for her, even when she started packing (illegal) heat. The first couple of incidents were just bad luck but then she began looking for trouble now that she had Mr. 9mm to back up her righteous anger, and my sympathy ebbed away to be replaced with contempt culminating with the rooftop scene which was just utter garbage.

I was, by then, confident that it couldn't get worse. Until the ending, when Mercer gives her the chance to beat the rap. Sick and twisted rah-rah garbage that is a gift to the gun lobby.

Jodie is way above this and surely she didn't need the money. For nearly forty years I've been a strong admirer of hers. I know I always will be. But this was not one of her finer moments.


1/10