A Lesson In Syntax
posted on Thursday, November 05, 2009 in Movie Reviews
There ought to be a hyphen in the title Law Abiding Citizen between the words “law” and “abiding.” That may seem like a pithy observation, but it’s actually indicative of one of the major problems of the movie. There’s a pretty serious argument about the nature of justice in a modern society at the very heart of this film. But when a movie can’t even get the syntax of its title right, how is it supposed to be able to make its case intelligently? Law Abiding Citizen only thinks it’s smart, but it’s mostly pretty ridiculous.
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) watched his family die in front of him during a home invasion. The two perpetrators were caught, but one of them gets off easy thanks to a deal made by cynical but brilliant prosecutor Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) trying to protect his conviction rate. Ten years later, Shelton reemerges to brutally murder the men that entered his home on that fateful night. He’s quickly arrested, and Rice, lacking the evidence to convict him, is trying to get him to confess to the crime. But Shelton has a few secrets up his sleeve, and even within the walls of prison, he’s seemingly able to continue killing everyone involved in the case ten years ago. Rice has to figure out Shelton’s game before he destroys everything. What’s amazing about the movie is how seriously it takes itself. It intersperses scenes of gratuitous violence with an argument about how the American justice system is terminally flawed, with prosecutors protecting their conviction rates by making deals with murderers and letting criminals get off easy for their actions. Perhaps it’s a decent argument to make, but putting in the mouth of an amoral murderer makes it difficult to swallow. What’s disturbing is how the film is clearly on the side of the psychopath in this simplified tableau of morality, with the man who hasn’t committed any murders learning all of the film’s lessons and ending up making a change. I don’t like taking sides in ideological arguments in movies, but I really draw the line at advocating murder as a means of obtaining justice. It creates a rather preposterous experience, the excessive violence portrayed in the film being justified by a half-baked idea about how due process is actually a bad thing. Separated from the argument, the movie is pretty well made, using all the tricks that make for a pretty taut thriller. It spaces things out a little loosely in the middle, and the ending sequence is bafflingly cut together, but it works well enough.
Perhaps the movie could’ve worked a little better had they not cast Gerard Butler in the psychopath role. Butler is good for certain things, but there’s a lack of nuance to his performances that makes his arguments seem more like angry grunting. In brief moments where Butler is made to display his sadness over losing his family, he just looks like he’s having a headache. Jamie Foxx, on the other hand, is coasting on trying to look cool and slick. It strikes me that Foxx is at his best when he lets down the façade of coolness and starts acting like a human being. What save the movie from being a total disaster in the cast department are the supporting players. Watch out for a fearsome Viola Davis playing the mayor of Philadelphia. And Colm Meaney does wonders even in the background of a scene. Leslie Bibb shows off her often-underestimated talent as well.
In all honesty, the American justice system could stand to take some criticism, but any sort of serious attempt at scrutinizing it needs to be a lot smarter than what this movie offers. It isn’t long before the movie devolves into yet another reactionary piece, using fear and violence as a justification for the loss of civil rights. And then things blow up, and we’re still supposed to take it seriously. But really, everything you need to know is in the title.
My Rating:
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