Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009

'Law Abiding Citizen' lacks sense behind violent plot

By Edward Robertson, atomictown.com

When you sit down and really think about it, society-wide vigilantism is probably the way to go.

If you've been wronged, what are the chances a bunch of nutty old laws dreamed up a jillion years ago by gin-swilling Englishmen in wigs and pantyhose are going to be relevant to your modern problems? Think they ever heard of today's high-tech cybercrimes, like cyber-robbery and cyber-murder? Not bloody likely. Maybe if your neighbor nicked your ox or put a hex on you, then courtroom justice could help. Anything else, you're screwed.

Plus, think of all the tax dollars we'll save! Two bullets and an unmarked grave are gonna run us a whole lot less than years of appeals leading up to an expensively humane execution. Convinced yet? Damn. Then you're not likely to be convinced by Law Abiding Citizen, either, a thriller that argues long and dumb about the flaws in the American legal system, then forgets all that to bring us explosions.

Up-and-coming Philadelphia prosecutor Jamie Foxx isn't certain he can convict the two men who killed Gerard Butler's family. Taking the safe route, he accepts a plea that will let one of the killers out in three years, devastating Butler and destroying his faith in the justice system.

Ten years later, he's ready to exact his own justice. After both killers wind up brutally murdered, Butler confesses and gets put away. But his work has just begun: from behind bars, Butler starts killing members of the Philly justice system, determined to bring the whole thing down.

Director F. Gary Gray's take on Butler's Old Testament-style throwdown is certainly slick enough, with lots of those spinny shots of rooftops and the grayed-out film that's as much a signature of the '00s as pink credits were to the '80s.

It all feels pretty paint-by-numbers, really: Foxx works too hard and might care more about his conviction rate than getting justice, but we know he's really a good guy because he has a wife and a kid, and no one who's ever had children has done wrong. And Butler's manic killing spree might look crazy, but have you ever considered it might be the so-called "justice" system that's crazy? With all its laws and "civil rights"? Why the hell do we need evidence and due process when we know the guy did it?

Where the courts fail, sometimes napalm bombs must make up the slack. That's as deep as writer Kurt Wimmer's arguments go, which makes it a real bringdown that Foxx and Butler spend about five semesters debating jurisprudential nonsense with about as much substance as me blowing my nose on the title page of Criminal Law for Dummies.

Give it five points, however, for the explanation behind Butler's plan. Somewhere between imaginative and ridiculous, it's a welcome sign of life in an otherwise flat and cliched thriller. Oh, and another five points for the judge's snap-action death. Now that was sweet.

Deduct 2,000 points for all the details that remain unaddressed or glossed over, such as why Butler's family was killed in the first place.

But Law Abiding Citizen isn't really interested in making sense or resolving plot issues. It's more into violent deaths, righteous stupidity and a whole bunch of stuff you've seen a hundred times before.

Grade: C-