Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen

Starring: Jamie Foxx, Gerard Butler, Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, Leslie Bibb

Directed by: F. Gary Gray

Reviewed by: Conor Flynn







Abiding Citizen is very close to closing this decade with a controversial bang. Despite displaying morals clearly set in la-la-land and having a ludicrous plot twist towards its final act, the film still managed to stoke most American film critics who have taken the moral high ground with regard to it, but is it really all that bad?

Clyde Shelton (Butler) lives a happy life with his wife and child. This ideal existence is shattered when two thugs brake into his house, one who rapes and murders both his wife and child. Due to insufficient evidence, prosecutor Nick Rice (Foxx) takes a plea bargain which sees the less guilty of the two face death row while the other is given a lenient sentence. Ten years later Shelton somehow manages to enact revenge on the two thugs, but doesn’t want to stop there, he wants to take down the whole system.

Law Abiding Citizen is as hilarious as it is conceited. Not a moment goes by in which you don’t question the retribution Shelton dishes out to his victims. Clearly an eye for an eye isn’t enough for Shelton; with one of his victims he literally wants not only the eyes, but also the tongue, toes and testicles. Tis just a little bit harsh, me thinks. As if that wasn’t preposterous enough, the explanation as to how Shelton commits the acts (while stuck behind solitary confinement) beggars belief. Law Abiding Citizen is utter trash, but is so confidently brazen about its own self importance, it’s a complete hoot!

The film is haphazardly directed by F. Gary Gray, though it has touches of brilliance, namely a scene midway though which is easily on par with the infamous sloth scene from the film ‘Seven’. It’s guaranteed to jolt most viewers out of their seats, but also humour due to its twisted sense of irony. But when the film is bad, it is laughably so, in particular, a moment where Shelton dresses as a cop. Suffice to say that his reveal isn’t anything like the wrath he later purports he will bring down upon the system. It isn’t “biblical,” it’s Clouseau-esque. Add to this, a lot of risible dialogue, a gratuitous nudity shot for Butler’s fans, a gun toting graveyard robot (no, seriously), and you’re left with something so boneheaded, it’s completely priceless!

This isn’t an easy film to mark. Given a choice, I’d give it a ‘question mark out of 5’ because part of me knows it’s terrible, but that would deny the fact that I got so much entertainment value out of it. For the moment, it gets a four out of five, but if you, the reader, feel that’s too generous, a one out of five will just as easily suffice.