"I always believed that fear belonged to other people. Weaker people. It
never touched me. And then it did. And when it touches you, you know... that
it's been there all along. Waiting beneath the surfaces of everything you loved. "I saw the movie last night. It's quite a typical story about love, lost and revenge... and the justice of it all. It's about life's unpredictability and how a person deals with such a situation. Erica is the character played by Jodie Foster. I have seen her in so many movies...the Silence of the Lamb, Flight Plan, Panic Room and the oldest I can remember is The Accused. It was all very well portrayed by Jodie Foster.
Synopsis of the movie: Erica a radio station broadcaster is due to wed her boyfriend. During one of their walks in the park, they were ambushed by thugs and they were beaten to death. However, Erica survived and she was never the same person. She bought a gun and started to kill bad persons until she found the same thugs who killed his boyfriend. There is this cop who helped her in the end.
The problem in the story is about coping. How does one cope with the lost? Let me rephrase that...how does a woman cope with the lost? There was a phrase they used in the movie. "you were left with a hole...how are you going to fill it in?". Erica's character is extraordinary. She coped by putting justice into her hands. In order to do this, one needs to be very brave. It's almost like the story of Batman and of Spiderman. The problem was solved by vengeance.
The story ended when she finally killed the three thugs who killed her boyfriend. Does that mean that the hole was finally filled in? Or is only a start for more vigilante activities?
We can always put an ending to such stories. Mine would be...that she finally decided that she really wants to be a policewoman and fight crime the legal way! And that she and her cop friend ended up marrying each other! There, I made it a happy ending.
2 comments:
Hi EM!
I saw the movie too. You're right, its a typical story about love, lost but not quiet of revenge. After the murder of her fiance, she got a gun because she felt felt weak and vulnerable. When she encountered the robber in the grocery, she was defending herself for she was again, in a wrong place at a wrong time. After more bloody encounters, she was confused and its just too bad that criminals crossed her way. She had a choice of keeping to herself and die emotionally or walk again in the street and live. She picked the tough one and paid for it.
What made her brave, the murder of her fiance or owning a gun? Both. She faced her fear in a hard and painful way. In the end I guess it will take more than bravery to face 'the stranger' in herself.
Jodie Foster delivered in this movie. The writers and the director have done a good job by making a social commentary and at the same time by making their audience think critically about random acts of violence, getting a gun illegally and how a good cop can selectively and interpret the law that he sworn in to follow.
Wow JTE! You have a good understanding of the movie. Revenge, although not evident at first became very clear at the end. Yes, she was vulnerable and the gun has offered her some sense of security and circumstances have presented her with situations that have made her unknowingly enter a path of no return. When she made her first kill..er encounter (a better word I guess), she knew she is capable of doing something. There was a struggle in her conscience at first…between right and wrong. That I guess is natural once you cross the fine line of good and bad and is part of the initiation to an unfamiliar path.
You remember when she finally saw the thug at the police line up? At that point, she could have made a decision to let go of her anger and hate. She could have said, “yes, that is him”. But she didn’t. She had decided that she will see to it that justice will be done her way. Vengeance is defined as an act of retaliation and is driven by great emotion of anger and hatred. That’s what happened when she took justice into her hands.
This is nice discussion …enjoyed it immensely! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I hope we can do this more!
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