Law Abiding Citizen

Though almost universally disliked by critics, Law Abiding Citizen surprised me as an enjoyable action film with some delightful intrigue.  Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man who is forced to watch his wife (Brooke Stacy Mills) raped and killed, and his young daughter (Ksenia Hulayev) murdered during a brutal home invasion.  Due to some incompetent forensic work, though, the case against the two who were responsible lands on shaky ground.  In a bid to secure an easy victory, prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) cuts a deal with the ring leader Darby (Christian Stolte) in order to bring the death penalty down on his accomplice Ames (Josh Stewart).  Clyde makes it abundantly clear that this is not the justice he had in mind, but he's helpless to do anything about it.  The cast also includes Viola Davis, Bruce McGill, and Leslie Bibb.

Fast-forward ten years.  Ames is finally serving his sentence, but instead of a quiet, humane passing, his death is quite horrific - apparently due to sabotage involving the lethal injection.  Darby is soon found brutally dismembered and quite dead.  Clyde denies nothing, but announces this is just the beginning in a campaign to bring down all aspects of a broken justice system.

At one point I was afraid that this was going to turn into some sort of Saw movie but thankfully that is not the case.  What is the case is the beginning of a brilliant set of escapades that straddle the border of believability.  Clyde takes out person after person with seemingly no effort at all, in ways that seem impossible.  He becomes a killer for justice that would make a worthy adversary for  Sherlock Holmes with his meticulous planning and smooth operation.  The only thing that kept me from truly rooting for him all the way was the fact that Nick really wasn't all that bad of a guy - he just wasn't perfect.

Despite all the impossible escapades that require a large dose of belief suspension, the part I found most jarring was the fact that Nick ends up outsmarting Clyde at one point.  Foxx's character just didn't seem intelligent enough to pull that off.  And do DA's really pull double duty as detective's?  That's what I want to know.  Aside from the fact that this film necessitates checking a bit of your logic at the door, the only other thing that really bothered me was Butler's accent.  He looked like he was in pain the whole time from restraining his Scottish brogue that occasionally slipped through anyway.  He really should stop trying to sound like an American - besides, aren't there American's with Scottish accents anyway?

Part of me says that I should come down hard on a film that relies so heavily on events happening that probably could never actually happen.  But this is a movie - movies are where midget aliens with magic fingers eat Reese's Pieces and phone home with contraptions made with a saw blade.  And the other part of me really had fun watching Gerard Butler do what he does best - kick some serious keister with some serious style.

**** (4/5 stars)