Law Abiding Citizen
Well then, the title is a little misleading for a kickoff. There is practically no law-abiding going on here.
It all starts happily enough. Clyde Sheldon (Butler) is at home with his wife and young daughter, when there comes a knocking at the door. What follows is the brutal attack on him and his family for what appears to be no more than kicks. His wife and daughter are killed, as he is tied and bound and forced to witness the whole bloody spectacle.
When the perpetrators are caught and sentenced, justice is far from served, and so Clyde decides to take the law into his own hands. So begins a short lesson in revenge.
Whilst the movie lasts more than an hour and a half, this story really ends after thirty minutes. What follows is no longer satisfying for the viewer and a good man wronged becomes something decidedly more sinister. Where the likes of ‘Taken’ created a hero that the audience could almost cheer for, despite some of the outrageous acts he carried out in the name of personal justice. There is no such gleeful voyeurism here after the first half an hour, and even then you wonder if anyone on set mentioned the word ‘overkill’ at any stage.
Regardless, there is more story here, even if it may not be the one you were expecting and it’s at this stage that you wonder if Clyde has suffered just too much to keep the anger of his loss in check. You question whether Clyde has tipped a little bit past breaking point. To tell you would ruin the film for you, but there is clearly more to Clyde than meets the eye.
As a thriller the film works well enough. Foxx’s prosecutor sparring against his previous client is intense at times, but inexplicably, Foxx comes out of these exchanges the lesser for it. This appears to be an out-and-out vehicle for the ever growing popularity of Butler, so much so that the scenes with Butler in them almost become laboured and extraneous. As a drama, the film displays way too many shortcomings in terms of quality. Whilst Butler may be a bonafide big screen star these days, he could never be accused of threatening to bother any Oscar voter for his performances in the arena of actual acting.
Which if true, makes Foxx’s performance all the more confounding. It is an odd choice for Foxx, coming hot on the heels of The Soloist, which truly showcases his enviable acting talents.
Difficult to pigeonhole satisfactorily, the film struggles to engage it’s viewers on any level and you are left wondering just who the hell to root for in a story where almost all of the characters are needlessly flawed and/or repellent. This is made even more disappointing, because you really wanted to engage with Clyde in the first twenty minutes. By the end you almost understand his thinking, but fail to agree with it.
Lastly, the film has a whole new set of problems with authenticity. Yes, we all appreciate the entertainment value of bangs and booms, but the film is masquerading as serious drama, where credibility is stretched way beyond what can feasibly be believed. With this and all of its other combined problem, and you have a odd piece of cinema that doesn’t really know where it belongs and pulls itself every which way to find a suitable resting place. Unfortunately, it doesn’t ever find it.
Overall, aggravating and inconsistent.
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