An awkward friendship progresses, and I found the dynamics quite interesting. Mercer is a cop who puts his faith in the legal system but is nonetheless frustrated by high-powered criminals who roam free thanks to its loopholes, and he has no idea that Erica is linked to the current murders by the mysterious vigilante. (Has no idea at first, of course. He's a smart cop.) Erica, meanwhile, is able to learn more about his own by-the-book philosophy will being careful not to expose herself for what she is. The subtlety and subtext that went into their conversations obviously required a lot of thought, which results in some great scenes.

Then the ending shoots itself in the foot by going for a violent action scene that results in one character making a decision I found to be truly tragic. I'm not usually one to preach about morals, but this movie has the same pathetic frame of mind as The Boondock Saints, the flick that preached to us all that it's okay to kill large crowds of people as long as you're almost sure that some of them are probably sort of bad people. I honestly thought a cast of this caliber and director Neil Jordan were above that sort of thing. If they made a movie with the exact same plot that actually dealt with its violence in a mature and thoughtful sense (go watch Unforgiven instead), they might have really had something. And yes, this is different from random action movies where the good guy blows away hundreds of bad guys, because the violence here is supposed to be the main theme. To make that your theme, and then to conclude with something as simple -- and as just plain wrong -- as "violent revenge makes everyone feel better" is a waste of what was otherwise an effective thriller.

Movie Grade: C+

Synopsis:

New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public's attention, and the city is riveted by her anonymous exploits. But with the NYPD desperate to find the culprit and a dogged police detective (Terrence Howard) hot on her trail, she must decide whether her quest for revenge is truly the right path, or if she is becoming the very thing she is trying to stop.