Call me sentimental but I’m kind of in love with Philadelphia. The other thing that stood out from the very beginning is this movie’s setting. The extent and execution of his actions reaches that level of impressive deviousness.
It’s like in handing the unrepentant Doyle a plea bargain, Nick Rice accidentally created a supervillain that Lex Luthor would love to have on his payroll if he wasn’t worried about Clyde taking over the business. He’s intelligent, well-spoken, resourceful and very angry, yet he’s polite when he needs to be and is careful to never tip his hand. Take this as your obligatory spoiler warning before I actually get to discussing the end, but from the start of the film up until about the 90th minute, Clyde comes off as a diabolical mix of Hannibal Lecter and Hannibal Smith. One thing of note, and a big part of the appeal of the story, is just how insanely prepared Clyde seems to be for most of the movie. It’s a character-driven movie, rather than being fueled by explosions and cleavage, so it was already winning points on that basis alone as it ran. There’s nothing earth-shattering in any of these elements, but neither are any of them bad enough to warrant a mention. None of the actors seemed to be phoning it in or gnawing overmuch on the scenery. F Gary Gray’s got good directing chops that give us clean scenes and realistic framing.
Kurt Wimmer, creator of the exceptional Equilibrium, is good at this sort of intelligent, vengeance-minded scripting. It slowly becomes apparent just how dangerous Clyde really is, and Nick is the only person capable of figuring out Clyde’s next move, provided Clyde isn’t actually three moves ahead.įrom the standpoint of composition and flow of story, there’s really nothing objectionable about Law Abiding Citizen with one noteable exception.
Ten years later, a series of gruesome but highly coordinated events begin to take place, and it soon becomes clear that Clyde has a bone to pick with not just his attackers, but the system that let one of them walk away. Clyde is a little upset about this turn of events. Stabbed and forced to watch his family murdered, Clyde then sees months of time and millions of dollars trickle away as his lawyer, hotshot Nick Rice, brokers a deal with more vicious of the two attackers, Doyle, that sends the partner to Death Row while Doyle himself gets a slap on the wrist. He’s making a quiet living with a few inventions with his wife and daughter when his home is invaded. While most of these heroes operate outside of the system, Law Abiding Citizen goes a step further by taking on the system itself.Ĭlyde Shelton is a tinkerer. Enter righteously motivated and occasionally unhinged vigilantes, from Batman to the Punisher, from Paul Benjamin to the Boondock Saints. However, the lament of many an individual with a mind geared towards justice and perhaps even honor is that the system established by our culture is fraught with loopholes, caveats and legal prestedigitation that allows criminals to escape what might be considered their just rewards. It’s the reason Law & Order is one of the longest-running shows on television.
We debate what is in society’s best interest, study those who act against that interest and determine ways in which those parties can be dealt with. As a generally enlightened culture, we are fascinated by the concepts and procedures of justice.