Brave (2018)

Directed by: Lin Oeding | 94 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Jason Momoa, Garret Dillahunt, Jill Wagner, Stephen Lang, Sasha Rossof, Sala Baker, Fraser Aitcheson, Teach Grant, Glenn Ennis, Todd Scott, Zahn McClarnon, Brendan Fletcher, James Harvey Ward, Steve O’Connell, Tye Alexander, Kevin Lewis, Steve Cochrane, Patrick Kerton, Monica Walsh

With his debut ‘Braven’ stuntman and stunt coordinator Lin Oeding breaks through into the world of film makers. In this straightforward action flick, a father protects his family from drug-dealing mercenaries who want their cargo back at any cost.

The film opens with breathtaking shots of snow-capped mountain ranges, frozen lakes and spruce forests of Canadian Newfoundland. The only warmth to be found here is with a family whose life is about to be brutally disrupted by a powder that resembles snow in appearance.

Joe Braven (Jason Momoa) is the owner of a logging company. A co-worker, Weston (Brendan Fletcher) does odd jobs by transporting drugs in hollowed-out logs with a local drug dealer (Zahn MacClarnon). One evening, Weston slips off the road with his truck and, with his partner, stores the drugs in Joe Braven’s log cabin for the time being. Then they call Kassen, the drug boss, to let them know where the drugs are.

Joe lives with his wife Stephanie (Jill Wagner), his young daughter Charlotte (Sasha Rossof) and his father Linden Braven (Stephen Lang). Linden has suffered brain damage from a fall from a great height, causing him to show symptoms of dementia, which causes the necessary tensions and discussions in the house. After a bloody brawl in a bar, Joe takes his father to his log cabin to talk about his dementia where he discovers the drugs. In the meantime, Kassen has arrived at the log cabin and, together with other mercenaries, has surrounded the log cabin and closed off the passable roads. Then chaos erupts.

The plot is simple and isn’t meant to crack the brain but to enjoy action where the good go against the bad. Nor is it intended to explore the gray areas of human nature, but rather to enjoy the cat-and-mouse game with a bowl of popcorn, which unfolds in a predictable way with bullets and axes flying around.

Jason Momoa’s character, although physically intimidating, is portrayed in a realistic way. The film market is already infested with Stathamesque characters who lead modest lives, somewhere in a wilderness, but are actually hardcore ex-Navy Seals who have performed black-ops on different continents. Joe Braven, on the other hand, is an everyday man with a healthy determination to protect his family from the big bad wolves. Jason Momoa himself has a fairly one-dimensional acting spectrum and shows the same brutal primal behavior in most of his films.

Garret Dillahunt (’12 Years a Slave’, ‘No Country for Old Men’) portrays Kassen in an intimidating way, in which his soft voice is inversely proportional to his cruel cold-bloodedness and violent nature.

Stephen Lang (‘Avatar’, ‘Don’t Breathe’) who previously played with Jason Momoa in ‘Conan The Barbarian’ and usually exudes a cool steel personality, shows a fragile side here. However, when the time draws near to act, he is once again the clear self-assured coolness itself.

Although ‘Braven’ is set in a spectacular setting, the film is predictable and a die-hard movie viewer has seen this plot so many times that it doesn’t add anything new. The acting performances are average and do not exceed expectations. This is not a Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates where you don’t know what you’re getting: here you get exactly what you expect and nothing more.