The Explosive Ambiguity of Law Abiding Citizen

An ordinary man takes the law into his own hands after the hoods who murdered his family go free. We’ve seen this movie countless times, with Charles Bronson (a lot), Kevin Bacon, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Steven Seagal, and Thomas Jane to name just a few. But Law Abiding Citizen works surprisingly well, thanks to an intensely charismatic performance from Gerard Butler and a sharply unpredictable and more than slightly diabolical script that subverts the genre. What we’re supposed to take away from the film is less than clear and maybe slightly problematic, but Law Abiding Citizen remains a slickly made and highly entertaining moral thriller.

The film opens swiftly and confidently, introducing protagonist Clyde Shelton (Butler). We see him at home with his daughter, who is making a bead necklace, while Clyde is doing a craft project of his own, something involving complex circuitry. So we learn immediately that this guy has some very specialized tactical knowledge and he cares very deeply for his family. All this is shattered in a matter of minutes, when two thugs break into Clyde’s house, bind and stab him, then go to work on his family. It’s a horrifying and brutal setup, as director F. Gary Gray pulls no punches in depicting it, and he maintains this level of disturbing and grisly realism throughout the film.

From there, we get what we’ve seen before. We’re introduced to Jamie Foxx’s up-and-coming attorney Nick Rice, and we quickly get the impression that this guy is more concerned with his own career and only taking cases he can win than he is with standing up for justice. He tells an understandably distraught Clyde that he’s cutting a deal with one of the murderers. Bad Guy #1 is going to testify against Bad Guy #2 for a reduced charge. The results: Bad Guy #2 goes to death row but Bad Guy #1 pleads murder in the third degree and only does a few years time. Clyde begs Nick not to make the deal, he tells him that the jury will believe in his testimony because it is the truth. Nick says the usual about evidence is circumstantial, yada yada yada… But I felt that Nick didn’t care, and Clyde clearly felt that too. Moments later, Clyde sees Nick shaking Bad Guy #1’s hand on the steps of the courthouse in front of the press, and he’s got a look in his eyes that screams this ain’t over.

Now let me be clear, Nick Rice isn’t a bad guy…he’s just not an overly good one. He’s more into his career and more into becoming a bigger hotshot than he is. But maybe that’s because, like Clyde, he’s a family man with a wife and a baby on the way. He seems similar to Willy Beachum, the young attorney Ryan Gosling played in Gregory Hoblit’s underrated 2007 legal thriller Fracture. Except I found Beachum to be a lot more sympathetic, but that may have something to do with my disdain for Jamie Foxx. I’m not saying the guy isn’t talented, but he’s always made my skin crawl a little bit. I’ll never forgive him for helping bastardize Miami Vice in the ill-conceived 2006 movie reboot. But I digress.

The film then cuts abruptly to a full ten years in the future. Bad Guy #2 is being executed, except instead of having a nice painless injection, someone corrupted the machine so that his death was long and screamingly painful. Soon after, Bad Guy #1 is abducted, viciously tortured and executed. We’re talking horror movie, torture porn violence here people. We have no doubt that Clyde is involved in these murders, and neither do Nick or the cops. They track Clyde down and find him waiting peacefully to be arrested. We’ve seen this all before right? All of this is filmed and acted really well, but we have indeed seen it done before. But now the film starts to depart radically from the typical vigilante revenge film.

For the rest of the movie, Clyde is in prison. And yet, anyone who was involved with his family’s case is being brutally (and very creatively) assassinated. Clyde isn’t just after the bad guys, he’s after every facet of the justice system that allowed one of the killers to go free. Nick is of course at the top of this list, but Clyde is saving him for last. The question then becomes, of course, how the hell is Clyde killing all of these people if he is locked away in a maximum security prison? Nick thinks he has an accomplice on the outside helping him, but you know that’s too easy a solution for a movie like this.

From here, the movie becomes a remarkably intense chess match between Clyde and Nick. I never get tired of seeing movies that pit one dynamic character played by an equally dynamic actor against the other. When done right, it’s electrifying to watch. I already mentioned Fracture. Other movies like this I would cite would be The Thomas Crown Affair, Heat, The Score, The Dark Knight, Entrapment, Face/Off, and Die Hard just to name a few off the top of my head.

Here’s the thing about Law Abiding Citizen though. I’m sure the majority of other reviewers are griping about how implausible the film is, how unlike real life, etc. But that’s not necessarily a fair criticism. The truth is, no movie is just like real life, no matter how gritty or “documentary style” it claims to be. Movies are real life with all the boring parts edited out. What matters isn’t if a movie is exactly true to life, but if it is true to the world it has created. The world in Law Abiding Citizen is a brutal, crazy, even insane world. And when it is finally revealed how Clyde is doing the things he does, yes it is shocking, yes it is unbelievable and outlandish. But it’s certainly not impossible, not in the world the film created.

I’m not giving anything away here, but you learn in the course of the movie that Clyde was a think-tank guy that worked for the defense department devising ingenious, tactically precise ways to kill people. So right off the bat the movie is asking you to buy into this very large coincidence that a guy with those abilities is randomly attacked in his home by a couple of low-rent thugs. It’s a big, convenient coincidence. Either you buy into it or you don’t. I just went with it and watched the movie, and I was happy that I did, because the movie entertains in spades, and these days that means a lot to me.

The set pieces in the film are explosive and really well-executed. The audience I saw it with was laughing and applauding and crying out. We all had a very audible reaction to the film. Any movie that can make you react in such a measured way can’t be all bad. What’s also interesting about the movie (and problematic) is that, unlike similar types of films, there is no clearly delineated good guy or bad guy. You are totally with Clyde throughout the first act of the movie, you’re cheering him on. But as it goes on you realize this dude is really crazy, and you’re not even sure exactly what point he’s trying to make. I mean at one point he’s basically trying to wipe out the entire city of Philadelphia. And while Nick isn’t a particularly likable fellow, he’s certainly not a bad guy either. At the end of the film, you really don’t know what you’re supposed to take away from it, or whose side you were supposed to be on. Not that that’s a bad thing. Ambiguity can be wonderful sometimes, as can certainty.

F. Gary Gray has a spotty record in my book. The Negotiator was a crackerjack thriller with two first-rate performances by Kevin Spacey and Samuel L. Jackson. I love that movie. I even enjoyed his Italian Job remake with Mark Wahlberg. But Be Cool, the sequel to the great comedy Get Shorty, was one of the most forced and painfully unfunny movies I’ve ever seen. Four years after seeing it in theaters I still have a bad taste in my mouth. He hasn’t done much else of note in my book. But Law Abiding Citizen is skillfully made and stylishly directed, and I was so happy to see a movie besides Rocky make a character out of Philadelphia. It’s a great and underused city.

Also working in the film’s favor are Bruce McGill and Colm Meaney, two of the best character actors around. McGill has been great in everything from MacGyver to Matchstick Men, Collateral, Cinderella Man, and The Insider, and Colm Meaney in Con Air, Life on Mars, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Those guys are always terrific to watch. And I had never been impressed with Butler before this, but he’s first rate in this movie. Jamie Foxx is…Jamie Foxx.

If you’re looking for a piece of grisly and intense entertainment this weekend, Law Abiding Citizen is better than you probably would have expected.
And if you want to read additional Poptimal reviews for Law Abiding Citizen check out Law Abiding Citizen by Tanya Lane.