LAW ABIDING CITIZEN - Perfectly Serviceable Thriller

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is the tale of an ordinary man who was wronged taking his vengeance on the system that wronged him. Written by Kurt Wimmer and directed by F. Gary Gray, it stars Gerard Butler (a pretty nice guy and a great actor) and Jamie Foxx.

LAW ABIDING SPOILERS BELOW

Butler plays Clyde, a man who suffers a break-in at his home, getting stabbed, and being forced to watch his wife murdered in front of him and his daughter hauled off into the next room to be killed. When he awakes, she is indeed dead. Jamie Foxx is the ambitious prosecutor who, not willing to risk his high conviction rate, accepts a plea bargain that will execute the wrong man (the accomplice) and let the murderer serve a short term. Ten years later, Clyde sabotages the accomplice's execution equipment, killing him in excruciating fashion. He then goes on to abduct and brutally dismember the killer, before leading police to his house to arrest him.

From then on, he plays a cat and mouse game with Foxx and the police, blaming them for not bringing his killers to justice. He also starts killing off the sleazy defense attorney, the judge handling the case, and the prosecutors. Foxx eventually learns that Butler is a former CIA wetwork specialist, who figures out imaginative ways to kill people. And that everything he's doing is part of an elaborate scheme to bring down the justice system from the inside.

Here's what the film does right. It sets up Butler's character well, and spaces out the revelations of who he really is and what he's capable of. It has some imaginative and tense killing scenes, and some good heads-up dialogue driven scenes between Foxx and Butler. Much of the action is suspenseful as well. The reveal that Butler has been acting alone, having tunneled into the prison before being sent there is a genius touch.

Weaknesses include the fact that Foxx's character is a bit of a dick. Setting him up as someone who blows off justice for his conversion rate makes him not very likeable. And he never really comes around to realizing the error of his ways. The closest the film gets is when he confronts Butler and tells him he'd do it differently next time; but this is a bit muddled in the heated context of the scene.

The next weakness is that the legal aspects of the film seem a little far-fetched. Butler witnesses the killer stab his wife to death; even if he didn't see his daughter die, his testimony would be enough to convict the killer. This could've been avoided by a little better scene-turning and direction, such as Butler passing out before his wife actually died. The film also could've shown how Jamie Foxx's decision was more about not letting a murderer go free by including a short scene between Foxx and the scummy defense lawyer where the defense lawyer picks apart the prosecution's case and shows how his client probably will go free.

Butler's revenge plan seems a little off as well. First, the accomplice (who really seemed shocked with the murders) gets brutally killed, and this seems a bit excessive. He was going to die anyway, so why torture the guy for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Then, Foxx goes after some people who had nothing to do with the case at all. Like the judge. She didn't let the killer get away with murder -- she just presided over the case. And having Butler get pissed at her for almost granting him bail due to legal precedent is ridiculous -- that's her job. He's a smart guy and should realize that a first-time offender with no priors who isn't a flight risk SHOULD be granted bail. It also felt weird that Butler's ultimate goal is to destroy pretty much all of City Hall, since the mayor and other officials have literally nothing to do with his wife and daughter's case.

Similarly, Foxx doesn't have much of an arc, unless it's learning not to make deals with murderers. That's not a particularly large or important thing for a prosecutor to learn, so it can't really anchor the movie in terms of character growth. There's a smaller bit about Foxx learning to spend more time with his family, but again, that's not really a major thing and seems inevitable.

The ending, in which Foxx tricks Butler by bringing his napalm bomb into his cell and locking him in there, leaving Butler to call the bomb and blow himself up -- is patently ridiculous. While it makes for a snappy movie ending, in reality, a prosecutor just firebombed a prison and killed someone. Which would make him the most irresponsible prosecutor of all time.

Finally, since the film is largely about a man trying to get revenge for his wife and daughter, and since it spends a fair amount of time setting up Foxx's wife and daughter, it feels like a major oversight that Butler's plan didn't involve putting them in danger or at least making it seem like they were in danger. If he's trying to teach Foxx a lesson about protecting your family or the lengths you'll go to in order to do so, this is a major omission.