Review: Law Abiding Citizen (18)
By Evening Gazette
JUSTICE is blind and, by the end of F Gary Gray’s gruesome thriller, it’s also horribly burned, dismembered and disembowelled as a family man turns the tables on the law-makers who let him down.
The moral conundrum that underpins the screenplay is obscured by graphic violence and relentlessly sadistic revenge played out by the central character on the denizens of Philadelphia.
His corruption at the hands of an unfair justice system and quest for retribution are supposed to blur the lines between good and evil, but the protagonists aren’t sketched in sufficient detail to carry this off.
As family man turned vigilante, Gerard Butler chews lifelessly on every clichéd line, while Jamie Foxx, as the crusading man of the law who must stop him, is lifeless.
In a very unpleasant prologue, two thugs break into the home of brilliant inventor Clyde Shelton (Butler) and kill his wife (Mills) and young daughter (Hulayev). To add insult to injury, glory-chasing lead prosecutor Nick Rice (Foxx) cuts a deal and agrees a reduced sentence for one villain in exchange for testimony against the other.
Ten years after the worst moment in his life, Clyde begins his plan to make Nick suffer just like he did, by attacking his colleagues Jonas Cantrell (McGill) and Sarah Lowell (Bibb) and the mayor (Davis). Clyde even involves Nick’s wife Kelly (Hall) and daughter Denise (Young).
When more people die while Clyde is safely tucked away in a prison cell, the prosecutor and cop pal Detective Dunnigan (Meaney) realise their prime suspect has an accomplice on the outside.
Law Abiding Citizen plays out largely as expected, with lashings of blood and gore to remind us that Clyde is a psychopath who doesn’t think twice about gutting his cellmate to pass the time.
The hunt for the accomplice is a classic Scooby-Doo caper, replete with a ridiculous pay-off that is impossible to take seriously.
::LAW ABIDING CITIZEN
Certificate: 18
Length: 1 hour 48 minutes
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Bruce McGill, Leslie Bibb, Viola Davis, Regina Hall, Emerald-Angel Young, Brooke Mills, Ksenia Hulayev
Director: F Gary Gray
