Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

Tagline: Justice at any cost.

Curiosity: It’s like a Se7en for MY generation! Or maybe just a revamped Saw set in Philadelphia.

Plot: Engineer Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is going through a rough patch in his life. His wife and daughter are both murdered before his eyes by two robbers. Later, his attorney, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), allows a plea bargain that gets one charged with only third degree murder in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Rice justifies that “some justice is better than no justice,” since he doesn’t have an airtight case that could convict both of the accused. Of course, Shelton knows they did it. So he takes ten years to plan out an elaborate murder scheme, one which will allow him to lay waste to everyone who denied his family justice. This plan involves explosions ‘n’ guns, and somehow it will allow him to kill er’rybody from… A JAIL CELL!

Thoughts: Without a moral focal point, Law Abiding Citizen comes off unfocused. I think I’m supposed to root for Rice, because he plays by the rules and, uh, doesn’t kill people. But he’s also a huge douche bag, and the film heavily implies that he really took the plea bargain to further his own career, as he would benefit more from one guaranteed conviction than two gambled ones. The film also makes the killers excessively evil, while somewhat glorifying Shelton’s actions. At the same time, though, he also kills an awful lot of people, and by the end it’s clear that he probably doesn’t know when to stop.

But before that point, Law Abiding Citizen is a total revenge fantasy, and it delights in Shelton’s death traps. In fact, by the time Rice finally bests Shelton, it rings awfully hollow, as if the filmmakers didn’t remember a protagonist for the audience to root for until the very end. Also, [SPOILER] Rice beats Shelton by sinking to his level. That’s a weird message to push, one that directly conflicts with the conclusion of The Dark Knight. And I do not handle people contradicting Batman well.

That said, Butler is a blast the super-smart psycho Shelton, while Foxx is suitably prickish. The film’s mystique over how Shelton accomplishes his assassinations from prison starts to unravel over time, but for a while, Law Abiding Citizen is a gripping schlockfest.

Refection: Hey, there’s Mayor Nutter!