Review for Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen (R)

Release Date: October 16th
Director: F. Gary Gray
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Colm Meaney, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Viola Davis
Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

Law Abiding Citizen is one of those thrillers where you will most likely find yourself rooting for the alleged “bad guy” all the way until the end. It’s hard not to enjoy sweet revenge when someone who has been wronged brings it upon those who deserve it.

Gerard Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, a loving family man whose wife and daughter are murdered by two thugs who break into his home one night. Jamie Foxx plays Nick Rice, the Philadelphia district attorney handling Clyde’s case. Nick arranges a plea-bargain with Darby--the man most responsible for the murders—in order to maintain his 96 percent conviction record. It entails a testimony against his accomplice, which will result in a short-term jail sentence for Darby while the other man receives the death sentence. Nick justifies the plea bargain by telling Clyde that both men could walk free without the testimony. However, this isn’t good enough for Clyde and he develops resentment towards Nick for making a deal with a murderer.

Ten years pass by for Clyde to develop his ingenious plan to bring justice upon the two guilty men as well as several people involved with the case and succeed where the judicial system has ultimately failed.
The murder of Darby—the scumbag that pretty much gets off scot-free--is like watching the movie “Hostel” all over again, except with a lot less gore. It’s violent and sadistic but you know you’ll be smiling because he deserves it. After being arrested, Clyde plays a sort of cat-and-mouse game with Nick, offering ridiculous deals he must come to terms with if he wants Clyde to reveal the locations of people whose lives are still in danger even though he is locked up. He asks for a therapeutic bed for his cell in turn for his confession, a steak dinner and his ipod in turn for the location of the killers’ criminal attorney who is not quite dead yet—propositions that make Clyde seem crazy but end up having an actual purpose to them. Even after being put in solitary confinement, judges and lawyers are still dropping dead and it makes you wonder how talented this guy has to be to still be able to kill people from behind solid bars.

The great thing about this movie is that Clyde’s way of vengeance isn’t cliché. Meaning he’s not walking around in a leather jacket with a big shotgun kicking in doors and putting bullets in the head of every person who has pissed him off. His tactics include obvious effort and intelligence. One could only hope so given he’s had ten full years to plan this whole thing out.

The worst part was the relationship between Clyde and Nick. It wasn’t as evolved as it should have been. I mean, they have a few short conversations when Nick questions him asking him for a confession, threatening him if he ever touches his family, etc. But there wasn’t any real emotion there, no torment between the two of them. The good guy-psycho relationship in movies likes this is what makes it strong. It seemed like any time things would get too intense Nick would just walk out of the room and the conversation would be over, not even giving enough of a chance for Clyde to get inside his head. In reality, of course, that would be the smart thing to do but in movies it is a factor that leads to boredom.

As far as the acting goes, Butler’s charisma made his role of a sadistic serial killer a likable one. The man can act, although he didn’t do too well of a job hiding his native Scottish accent in this one. This was not exactly an award-winning performance for Foxx. At times he just seemed bored, but his character wasn’t exactly a complex one to begin with.

The movie definitely brings suspense until it nears the end when you finally find out how Clyde has been managing to pull off his seemingly impossible murders from behind bars. Then you’ll probably just be asking yourself “Really? How did these dumb lawyers not think of that three murders ago?”

Law Abiding Citizen is definitely worth a watch. You might be battling with yourself as to whose side you should actually be on, but the murders, explosions, and suspense is enough to keep anyone entertained.

Check out the trailer below: