Law Abiding Citizen review

Nick Rice: You think your wife and daughter would feel good about you killing in their name? 
Clyde Shelton: My wife and daughter can't feel anything. They're dead. 

Director: F. Gary Gray
(2009)

From its brash and weakly developed opening, Law Abiding Citizen is happy to stumble from one poorly written plot device to another. The concept is an intriguing one, a man who is locked in prison causes havoc on the outside world to prove highlight the flaws of the justice system. Unfortunately, thanks to an awful script and lacklustre direction, Law Abiding Citizen is about as subtle as being hit in the face with a baseball bat.

The film focuses on husband and father Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) who only moments into the film, has his family killed and house robbed by junkies. His attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) helps in the sentencing of the culprits, with one getting a death sentence while the other only gets 5 years due to a loop in the justice system. Understandably, this angers Clyde, who feels that their punishment must be more severe, resulting in him taking matters into his own hands. What could have developed into a satisfying revenge thriller is abruptly ended just 25 minutes in, with Clyde exacting his revenge on the killer Darby (Christian Stolte) in the most brutal way possible. If director F. Gary Gray had any sense, he would have rolled the credits and prevented law abiding citizen from descending into a dreadful mess.

Locked up on murder charges for the slaughter of Darby, Clyde meets Nick once again. Form inside his cell, he reigns terror on the city with an aim to bring the justice system to its knees. From here, we stop caring for Clyde; he has, after all, avenged his family with the death of their killers. But instead, he aims to kill lawyers, attorneys and judges on his sick and misguided quest for proving a point. He mindlessly slaughters people who had little if not anything to do with the case of his family’s murder, all to show his distain of the law. He goes from vigilante to outright bastard in seconds, something almost reflected by giving the majority of the remaining screentime to Jamie Foxx. Though this isn’t good either, as Foxx puts in as little effort as possible, resulting in a horrendously bad performance.  

For the rest of the film we see a good idea get buried under a colossal mountain of bad writing, plot holes and events that are outright impossible. The stilted dialogue and excruciatingly bad plot combine to generate laughs instead of the thrills that law Abiding Citizen needs to pull it through its terrible second third. Only once the narrative has been dragged through hell and back, we are served an ending that is broken logically and thematically, a rotten cherry on a mouldy cake.

Despite its horrendous flaws, law abiding citizen isn’t all bad. Butler puts in a solid performance and an early chase scene; complete with the escapee being guided by a guardian angel on the other end of the phone, is thrilling. But that’s about where any form of compliment ends.

2