Law Abiding Citizen - Holding Government Accountable With A Vengeance

Apr

17

Law Abiding Citizen - Holding Government Accountable With A Vengeance

≡ Category: Action, Drama, Mainstream, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, Suspense, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Drama/ Suspense/ Action/ Mainstream
Director: F. Gary Gray
Year: 2009

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

I’m half surprised that Law Abiding Citizen wasn’t a huge hit, but only half.

As anyone knows who has seen the trailer, after Clyde Shelton’s (Gerard Butler) wife and daughter are tortured and murdered by a couple of slimeballs, Assistant District Attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) cuts a deal with one of the killers to testify against the other. If Clyde was the average guy, he would scream and cry and eventually subside into whimpering submission.

But Clyde is not the average guy. He’s a high-tech weapons guy who works for the government, expert in the art of remote control assassination.

When the government screws you over, they operate under the assumption that a single person cannot do anything when confronted with the full apparatus of state power. Most people know this, and it infuriates a good percentage of them. If the filmmakers had manipulated this premise to full effect, it would have been dramatic and box office gold, but they miscalculate grievously by making Jamie Foxx the hero.

Foxx’s character Assistant D.A. Nick Rice is obsessed with his conviction rate. You see, he views it as a springboard to higher office. In other words, he’s a selfish prick who has no idea he’s in a public service job. Sound familiar? He should be the villain, dammit. I don’t care if he does have a cute kid.

Clyde Shelton is clearly the audience surrogate. And as long as he’s kicking the ass of the state, Law Abiding Citizen works like gangbusters. For that, credit director F. Gary Gray and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer. The dialog scenes are juicy and well-performed and the action is tightly choreographed and edited. But the filmmakers screwed up the all important rooting interest.

If the filmmakers had wanted to create a more nuanced film, they could have done so by making Nick Rice a reasonable man who dispassionately is willing to settle for some justice when there is a chance that there might be no justice. But time after time, Nick power trips. Even after a dozen of his friends and colleagues have been murdered, he learns nothing.

*****************SPOILER ALERT***********************************************

Here’s where the filmmakers make their big mistake. Nick manages to outwit Clyde Shelton. Even though he hasn’t really learned anything and he’s just as egotistical and self-centered as ever, he wins. Most of Nick’s friends that die didn’t really deserve it, and the prick that caused all the damage gets away scot free. Boy, I’ll bet that stuck in the craw of the average viewer.

It would have been so easy to rewrite the ending so that Nick loses completely, which would have served him right. I would have been on my feet cheering at the end of the movie, even though I was watching it at home on TV.

To add insult to injury, the filmmakers tack on that moldy oldie, the overly careerist parent who finally makes it to his child’s music recital/play/whatever in the epilogue, proving that he has finally gotten his priorities straight. Even this scene could have been redeemed with a wicked twist.

Oddly enough, what a lot of reviewers have seized on as a weakness of Law Abiding Citizen really isn’t.

A lot of people have complained that the explanation for Clyde’s near omniscience is ridiculous, but wait a minute. Clyde has had ten years to plan his vengeance, he’s an expert in the art of war, and God only knows how much capital he had to work with. On the other hand, think about how incompetent much of the government is (think the leadup to 911). I’ll admit, it’s a stretch, but the explanation falls within the realm of the possible, certainly in the context of an wish-fulfilment fantasy like Law Abiding Citizen.

*****************END OF SPOILER ALERT****************************************

Now, the truth is that the preceding paragraphs aren’t much of a spoiler. The logic of Hollywood pretty much preordains that a ruthless killer is the villain and the person who is trying to stop him is the hero. So of course the hero is going to triumph.

But in this case, it was a clueless choice. The script of Law Abiding Citizen just begged to turn this logic on its head.

Then again, there’s another possibility. Maybe the filmmakers knew perfectly well what the most powerful way to make the film was, but they chickened out because they didn’t want to look irresponsible by letting a terrorist win. If so, they’re cowards, and they deserved the middling box office they got.

So, why am I giving Law Abiding Citizen a recommendation at all? Well, as long as Clyde is ripping the self-serving asswipes in government a new one, this flick is a full-on party — break out the chips and beer. And I’ve got to admit that it’s a well executed movie.

I’d like to especially single out Bruce McGill as Foxx’s mentor, District Attorney Jonas Cantrell. He’s a hard-nosed guy with a vestigial conscience. McGill is really good at registering suppressed fear. It’s a rich performance.

But ultimately, I’d have to put Law Abiding Citizen in the “if only” file. Unlike their antagonist Clyde Shelton, the filmmakers don’t have the balls to go all the way.