Film Review: Law Abiding Citizen (Spoilers)
Gerard Butler’s latest is a slickly made twist on the Silcnce of the Lambs premise – serial killer manipulates the criminal justice system for his own aims, except this serial killer was created by the judicial system. To make it work, director F Gary Gray needed it either to be a slamming indictment of American justice or an hilarious pantomime, and he just manages to toe the line between the two. Just. Kurt Wimmer’s screenplay is underdeveloped and is ultimately brought down by some shockingly bad dialogue and weak character development, but despite that and some awful acting by Jamie Foxx who practically sleepwalks through the whole thing, it manages to entertain, and in quite a big way. Much of the credit goes down to star Butler, who manages to keep his character believable, despite some frankly preposterous contrivances.
He plays family man Clyde Shelton, who is pushed over the edge after witnessing his wife and daughter’s murders and who is then betrayed by hyper-ambitious assistant D.A. Jamie Foxx. Shelton takes horrific revenge on the killers, but then turns his attention to the system which allowed the perpetrators to get away with it, picking off assistant D.A.’s, judges and even the D.A. himself (Bruce McGill). All the while Foxx and the police stand by helpless, ruthlessly manipulated by the man they let down. Except he’s killing again and again whilst still in jail – how is he managing to do that whilst incarcerated?
From an intriguing start the film gets increasingly overblown, as the scale of Shelton’s conspiracy becomes clear. But under the surface there’s actually a very strong premise – a huge number of us have lost faith in the criminal justice system, which has indeed become more about expedience for its own benefit rather than about justice. Yet whilst that message is thrown in our faces every few minutes (thanks Gray, we did actually ‘get it’ the first time), it’s never investigated with any sincerity. Take Shelton’s Batman-esque preparations and Lector-esque post-incarceration scheming out of it and you could have a dark, subversive look at a subject which motivates us all. But Butler’s pitch-perfect performance notwithstanding, it’s hampered by poor characterisation (Foxx’s character is never believable or sympathetic) and very little logic. It’s a great pantomime, with more underpinning it than most, but never really amounts to much more. Shame, but enjoy the romp!
7/10 (at least one for entertainment value alone)
