Law Abiding Citizen (2009) **

Every once in a while a movie is based in one genre, but tries to do something new within it with only two results possible: either you get something fresh, unique, and inventive or you get something that fails as a movie. Law Abiding Citizen falls into the latter category, being a film that is basically a revenge tale that trips and falls on the track half a mile from the starting line.

The film is about Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler), a man who witnesses common burglars break into his house and murder his wife and daughter. Paired with hot shot lawyer Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a man who is more worried about soiling his record than his victims, Clyde watches as the sentence for one perp is toned down in exchange for testimony that will give the other the long walk. As ten years pass Shelton snaps and not only kills the perps in medieval ways, but also begins the assassinations of everyone involved in the case.

There's a quote from of all things an old Batman comic book that comes to mind when watching a revenge film and it is really the essence of your basic vengeance movie: "That's the law, that's not justice." The problem with Law Abiding Citizen is for a man to do the evil that Clyde does you have to sympathize with him and this condones his actions. We're forgiving the dismemberment of the murder of his family. It's when he drives off the deep end and kills everyone in the system that failed him that throws the film into murky waters. Now I'm not saying that it ruins the movie, but it really kills whatever remorse you felt for the character. You begin to loath him. At the same time you're loathing Jamie Foxx because he's a lawyer and that's how we're supposed to feel about lawyers in movies. By the middle of the picture there's no one left to root for, it's just watching a game of cat and cat.

Couple on top of all this the sloppy screenwriting and the film finally falls of the slope into mediocrity. The usual cliches: how is this guy so good with equipment? Oh, he used to be a spook. See the sweet, innocent intern? She will be a sacrifice. It's the same, mundane script writing techniques that get mass produced every year. When we finally get to the ending it's not a moral epiphany or self sacrifice. It's the ending to a Roadrunner cartoon. Wile E Coyote got outfoxed and now he has to pay by getting soot on his face and hold up a witty white placard sign. Sure, we're led to believe that both main characters are changed men by the end, but we don't believe it.

Ultimately Law Abiding Citizen is a great movie during its first forty-five minutes and then falls in quicksand, deciding to commit suicide than grabbing the rope lying right above its head. You could compare this film with Death Wish, but the fact is that Paul Kersey knew who the bad guys were. he didn't start killing everyone that wronged him during this period of his life. His goal was justice. Clyde's goal is sacrifice or terrorism, not justice. That's why when Bronson blows away a guy with a reverse mohawk in Death Wish III, we can still feel for him.