Movie review: Law Abiding Citizen

by John P. Meyer

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A Violent violation followed by a miscarriage of justice leaves this reviewer wondering who to root for.

Action/thriller director F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job, Be Cool) re-ups for another frenetic fray with Law Abiding Citizen, a morally ambiguous, ultra-violent, moderately entertaining movie featuring Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler as antagonists on opposing sides of the law.

Sort of.

Butler plays Clyde Shelton, a family man whose family is brutally slaughtered while he watches (from a hog-tied prone position on the floor) during a home invasion. Foxx plays Nick Rice, an ambitious prosecutor working out of the Philadelphia district attorney's office. Rice takes on the case of the two perps who killed Shelton's wife and child.

This makes things sound like Nick and Clyde are on the same side -- which they are, at least until Nick decides to plea out the case, allowing the more vicious of the two defendents (the one who actually did the killing) to rat out his partner on condition that his own sentence is reduced. After the deal has already been cut, Nick attempts to explain to an outraged Clyde that there was a good chance the criminals could have gotten off scott free in a jury trial.

But here's the problem from Clyde's perspective, and it's an ongoing issue for moviegoers as they're trying to decide which character to sympathize with: Nick is an insensitive asshole who's clearly more interested in his case-win percentage than in seeing justice done. He (Nick) has a young daughter and beautiful wife of his own at home, yet he fails to convey any understanding of what it must feel like for Clyde to hear that the man who violated everything he held dear will now be back on the street in five years.

NOTE to D.A.'s office: piss of Leonidas at your own risk. (Butler still sports the washboard abs, by the way, as we discover in an early scene.)

Flash forward to a future in which pled-out perp Clarence Darby (Christian Stolte, believably sleazebag-ish) has been released on bail and has returned to his old pursuits. In the background, Darby's ex-partner-in-crime Rupert Ames (Josh Stewart) is strapped to the death gurney and injected with the fatal cocktail of chemicals. Scenes of Nick and his assistant Sarah (Leslie Bibb) observing the execution are intercut against clips of Nick's daughter Denise (Emerald-Angel Young) playing the cello -- at a recital Nick has chosen not to attend. (What a guy.)

Anyway, Darby won't be enjoying his new freedoms for long, because Clyde is on the vengeance-wreaking job, and his job rating is A+ (or 5.0, or whatever equates to absolute best ever). We soon learn that Clyde is an expert facilitator who used to do dirty jobs for the government -- and by dirty, I mean bloody -- only he devises clever ways to do them from a distance.

This talent comes in handy once he's captured and incarcerated for the Dexter-like dismemberment of Darby, which he records on video and delivers to ... well, never mind, but let's just say he's not trying to hide anything from anybody.

Pretty soon Clyde has both Nick and the prison warden (reliably officious Gregory Itzin) eating out of his hand, as he orchestrates one incident of murderous mayhem after another while relaxing on the comfort of his Duxiana mattress-equipped prison cell bunk.

Speaking of eating: one of the first "perks" Clyde bargains for in return for information on an imperiled officer of the court is the boon of a porterhouse steak dinner delivered fresh from Del Frisco's. Clyde and his "lucky" cellmate are reduced to gnawing the medium-rare meat from the bone by hand, because the warden refuses to allow them a knife to cut it up with.

The action crescendos with one of the bloodiest murders ever filmed (I pray), and the mystery deepens: How is Clyde able to pull off such amazing feats of targeted revenge from behind bars? His absentee assault on the city frustrates everyone from the tough-as-nuts mayor (Viola Davis, making an imposing figure in tailored suit) on down. A satisfyingly clever plot twist provides the eventual solution, but by this time we're looking at the equivalent of The Joker raining down destruction on Gotham City.

Colm Meaney does yeoman duty as Dectective Dunnigan, Nick's frequent companion in the field; and Bruce McGill provides a steadying presence as District Attorney Jonas Cantrell. Memorable in the role of a trial judge with a knack for hammering away with her gavel is Annie Corley. (Judge Burch could consider a second career as a carpenter -- no nail would stand a chance.)

The action is adeptly presented and the pacing is of the never-a-dull-moment variety ... but Kurt Wimmer's script leaves me wondering who to pull for at the climax.

Which is another way of saying: I really couldn't be bothered to care who made it out of the final reel alive, and who went up in flames.

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