JODIE FOSTER'S LIFE ON-SCREEN

SINCE CHILDHOOD, SHE'S STRUGGLED WITH ONE QUESTION: HOW MUCH DOES SHE WANT THE PUBLIC TO KNOW HER?

- JORDAN KISNER

JODIE FOSTER HAS SPENT MUCH OF HER CAREER PLAYING THE LONELY WOMAN UNDER PRESSURE.

A young FBI agent-in-training having underground tête-à-tête with a canni- balistic serial killer. A scientist launching into space, solo. A mild-mannered radio host who becomes a vigilante after strangers assault her and kill her boyfriend. A mother whose child vanishes in the middle of a transatlantic flight. A wife whose husband is having a suicidal psychotic break and will talk to her only through a hand puppet. It's not a relaxing oeuvre.

There are exceptions, of course; Freaky Friday (1976), which Foster made just after Martin Scorsese's grisly Taxi Driver, was a family-friendly romp. But her 58 years in film, which began during her preschool days, have been almost entirely devoted to outsider characters women who are emotionally isolated, fighting to be believed, striking out perilously on their own. For a long time, this was how Foster liked it.