Law Abiding CItizen 021610

Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is at home when two men bust into his home, immobilize him and murder his wife and daughter. Before the trial, prosecuting attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) makes a deal with the man who actually murdered them. He testifies against his partner in exchange for a lighter sentence. Clyde is devastated by this and is convinced the justice system isn’t just at all. Cut to ten years later. The convicted intruder is given his lethal injection but Clyde has switched one of the chemicals, which makes what is normally a painless death an excruciating one. On the same day, the more guilty accomplice is kidnapped, immobilized, and slowly cut into pieces by Clyde. He’s put in jail and manages to continue killing all involved in what happened.

The movie moves with a brisk pace, jumping right into the story: the first scene is Clyde’s family getting murdered. A fortunate directorial choice is to hint at the graphic violence rather than show it. Even crime scene photos are fortunately vague. This script was clearly written by someone with some kind of chip on their shoulder about the justice system. Rather than being about fat cats and mob bosses that seem to get away everything like so many of these movies are, it’s instead about some of the more ridiculous statutes that let people walk free. Rather than just saying the system is corrupt and expecting the audience to go along with it like most movies of this sort, it almost presents an essay about why they’re right. And it’s convincing. One weak point that you would assume this film would carry is that, given the plot, you’re rooting for the villain and don’t want him to be caught but the build-up of “justice” is finely handled. In the beginning, you’re totally on board with Clyde’s actions. They seem right, but as he moves further and further down the list of people he feels deserve to die, you sympathize less and less until you want him caught.

In case you couldn’t tell, I enjoyed this movie immensely and don’t have a whole lot of negative things to say. The main one is the ending. It felt the same as the ending to Huckleberry Finn, like the author just kind of decided to wrap it up. The big mystery through the movie is how Clyde is doing what he’s doing and the answer falls flat of what I felt was promised. I also didn’t like the method used to mark when Clyde has gone too far. It was necessary to the plot and I can’t argue with the fact that they did it. I just didn’t want them to do it.

Law Abiding Citizen is a finely acted, well written, and excellently paced throughout. You won’t watch it a lot but you’ll still want to own it because the urge to see will probably randomly strike you. B +.