A Vengeful 'Citizen'

by Brett Parker

Law Abiding Citizen is the kind of the thriller that you know is on shaky ground in terms of plausibility, but you find yourself entertained by it anyways. It’s kind of frustrating that it isn’t the most intelligent realization of its clever premise, but the plot generates just enough suspense to keep you sustained and it has just the right action-thriller tone to keeps things interesting. But considering the acting talent on board here, you wish the film could’ve been so much more.

The film opens with a scientist named Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) working on a project while his wife (Brooke Stacy Mills) and daughter (Ksenia Hulayev) prepare for dinner in their ordinary suburban home. There’s a knock on the door, and two hostile sociopaths named Darby (Christian Stolte) and Ames (Josh Stewart) come pummeling through for a home invasion. Clyde miraculously survives but helplessly witnesses the savage assault and murder of his wife and daughter before passing out. Due to his testimony, the two criminals are eventually captured and sent to trial. Clyde’s attorney, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) fears that if the two are taken to trial, there won’t be enough evidence to put them away. Therefore, he accepts a plea bargain in which Darby will testify against Ames, putting Ames on death row while Darby gets a minimal sentence. Clyde is outraged at this development and feels they should both be punished to the fullest extent with no mercy. Rice goes through with the deal, feeling that “some justice is better than no justice” while Clyde’s anger brews more intensely.

Ten years pass and Rice’s attorney career has skyrocketed to successful heights. Yet his world becomes violently shaken up the day it is discovered that Darby has been brutally murdered by disturbing methods. All evidence points to Clyde, who has spent the past decade plotting an elaborate act of revenge. The cops find him and place him in a maximum security prison, but that doesn’t stop his plan at all. As Clyde is locked up behind bars, everyone he seeks revenge against is still being murdered one by one on the outside. The judge, the attorneys, and everyone who had a hand in Darby’s original plea bargain meet macabre ends through sly and precise murder methods. It’s clear that Clyde is behind these murders, but how can he possibly commit them from behind bars? Does he have an accomplice of some sort? What is the method behind his madness?

When you reflect on Clyde’s plan, you realize it has vengeful implications but a rather sloppy execution. Clyde hopes that his diabolical murders will expose the flaws and ambiguities of the legal system as we know it, but all he is really doing is murdering people in the legal system one-by-one. He is striking against those who’ve obviously offended him, but he’s hardly exposing shady methods of the law in any recognizable way. Perhaps it would’ve been more devious if he had set up carefully planned traps in which the shady dealings of the legal system would be exposed out in the open. What if he blackmailed the Judge (Annie Corley) threatening to expose manipulated legal secrets? What if he somehow placed his targets in compromising positions that expose contradictions within the law? Like The Joker in The Dark Knight, maybe each trap could’ve proposed complicated moral situations in which his enemies would have to think like humans instead of self-serving lawyers. Ideas like this could’ve brought a more thoughtful significance to the film.

F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job, The Negotiator) has proven to be a competent director of generic action thrillers and he brings that same sense of formal competence to Law Abiding Citizen. He seems to specialize in hostile hyper-realities in which characters have a single-minded need to obtain their goals in rather dangerous situations. He doesn’t really bring much dramatic depth or philosophical musings to his work, but plays everything for its formulaic face value. Even a well-crafted thriller like The Negotiator owes more to careful-plotting than human nature. Still, he always tries to make sure that audiences get their moneys’ worth and that the standards of Hollywood action are met with adequacy, something he achieves this time out.

Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler can be the most likeable and intense of dramatic actors and their talents are truly relished in this generic outing. Butler especially brings conviction and feeling to a wildly contradictive character. Clyde is a man revealed to be a loving family man, a deeply-wounded victim, an intelligent scientist, a criminal mastermind, and a blood-thirsty sociopath pretty much all at the same time. The wrong actor in this role could’ve exposed the whole preposterousness of the character and imploded the whole enterprise. It’s rather impressive that Butler can make this character work. Foxx has very little to work with in the role of Rice, he’s written mainly as a bystander and a one-note investigator, but he tries to bring to the character as much focus and interest as he possibly can. These are two talented actors playing way below their potential, but they make the film more entertaining and convincing than it probably deserves to be.

When it comes to revenge plots and calculating suspense, I’ve seen way better thrillers than Law Abiding Citizen. Yet the film works; there’s enough juice in the performances and there’s a genuine interest in how Clyde’s plan ultimately plays out. The result may seem underwhelming and implausible, but at least we enjoy the ride along the way. I only wished it played with the idea of legal system exploitation a little more intelligently. I think in a future retrospect, this film will be remembered as an example of Gerard Butler’s considerable range and talents.