Why not more advance word yet on Neil Jordan's The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster and releasing on September 14 from Warner Bros.? It's playing at the Toronto Film Festival, I gather (their official play list releases August 21), but one would've thought that some long-lead, sow-the-fields screenings in Los Angeles would have started to take place. Maybe they have, I don't know.



The film centers on a New York City radio host who turns vigilante when a brutal attack takes her boyfriend from her. Her efforts to track down those she feels are responsible turns into a dark pusuit, streaked with violence and tinged with self-loathing. The movie's poster is in my opinion a simple, modern and effective piece of work; the sundown-yellow color is at once cautionary and regretful, and for older audiences Foster's short haircut draws an unspoken but effective parallel to her Oscar-winning aggrieved victim in The Accused. The film's trailer, meanwhile, is also fairly solid; powered by a fantastic score from Dario Marianelli, it puts a tonier spin on all those Ashley Judd movies of revenge and empowerment. But the end touch... "I want my dog back"? I almost spit my coffee out. Seriously, you can't end the trailer on that.

Naveen Andrews, the ubiquitous Terrence Howard — who costars in the excellent forthcoming The Hunting Party — and Mary Steenburgen also appear in the film.