Revenge taken to extreme


Law Abiding Citizen ★★★

PROVIDED you can put moral argument aside, the 2009 thriller Law Abiding Citizen is an exciting watch..

From Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson in Death Wish through the decades to John Wick, Taken and Peppermint, we’ve had vengeance served up on-screen with relish.

Here though it’s taken to an extreme and, possibly troubling degree for some viewers, with Gerard Butler’s widower declaring war on an entire city, dispatching dozens of people in increasingly sadistic ways.

Actually, scrub increasingly, because he basically starts his meticulously-planned revenge plot by filming himself hacking somebody’s limbs and appendages off.

Yes, Clyde Shelton has a reason for wanting revenge on the men who raped and murdered his wife and daughter, but here that extends to getting rid of anyone who may have even had a passing acquaintance with a judge, lawyer or cop involved, as well as the perpetrators themselves.

It’s completely far-fetched and over-the-top, but the action is solid and sometimes inventive and there are a couple of interesting twists in the mechanics of Shelton’s revenge plot towards the latter stages of the film.

Butler is his usual gruff self when he’s in full-on action mode, but Jamie Foxx struggles a little with his character, attorney Nick Rice.

His problem is mainly due to the limitations of a script that doesn’t allow a convincing portrayal of Nick’s moral dilemma  and more thoughtful examination of the flawed system that helps create a psychotic madman like Shelton.

As you can tell, subtlety isn’t the film’s strong-point.

Director F. Gary Gray has a mixed filmography, highlighted by Straight Outta Compton in 2015, but Law Abiding Citizen is very efficiently made and consequently on the right side of his ledger, provided you can stomach some of the more bloody moments.

By the way, if you like Butler and wonder how he would handle a good, non-action role check out A Family Man from 2016. It’s a tear-jerker that keeps its feet generally on the floor but tends to go unnoticed.