Analysis of Law Abiding Citizen

Oh Gerard. Gerard, Gerard! Wait—don’t click off of the page, my Gerard Butler mooning is over…but my mooning over Law Abiding Citizen isn’t!

 If you don’t know what the movie is about or have not seen the trailer, read and check out the following…then go see it and come back because ahoy there be spoilers!

The Story
From imdb.com: After his wife and child are murdered by two criminals, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is informed that one of the murderers will be sentenced to death but the other one will get off because of his cooperation with the police. Shelton decides to take justice in his own hands, including getting revenge on the murderers as well as those in the system responsible for setting the one murderer free. District Attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), one of those who helped set the murderer free, tries to stop Shelton.

As an amateur screenwriter aspiring to play in the big leagues sometime in the near future, I pay a lot of attention to the plot, character development, storylines and dialogue in movies. I walk out the theater and mull over certain parts of the movie again and again, eventually looking up the film’s writer, and that’s just what happened with this film.

I sat there in the theater, not wanting the film to end, and as soon as it did I wanted to see it again.

I’ve been thinking about this movie since I saw it a couple a weeks ago, determined to find out as much as I could about the story and the man who wrote it, Kurt Wimmer (who wrote and directed Ultraviolet among other things).

Plot
Great! Excellent pacing. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, DYING to see what would happen next and how Clyde would pull something off. There were moments when the audience was COMPLETELY taken by surprise (many gasps and shrieks throughout the theater) and moments where we knew that something was going to happen and somewhat knew what, but didn’t know when and were filled with suspense. The ending made me squee in my seat (no, not pee, but “squee” which is a noise).

Story
I thought the story was great, but one plot hole (from imdb.com): A prison would have many solitary confinement cells. Clyde would not know which one he would be put in (later) while he was doing the tunnel and trap door beforehand…

Characters
Who is the audience supposed to root for? Clyde or Rice? Who’s really the villain in this story? The film leaves it up to the individual to decide.

My thoughts? Both Clyde and Rice had their good and bad moments, but in my heart of hearts the only villains I can see are the ones who broke in at the beginning of the movie, setting everything into motion.

The break-in and subsequent eradication of Clyde’s family steadily transforms him into the man we know by the end of the film, and you know what, I can’t blame him. It might also be the fact that I find his cleverness and smartassness entertaining as all get out. I mean, he was doing bad things—okay, VERY bad things, but I (and many others in the theater) couldn’t help but cheer him on and call out “Oh snap!” at the screen.

I feel like Rice didn’t get as much development in the movie, as it was more Clyde’s story. But we’re supposed to assume that the man who had to miss his daughter’s recital at the beginning of the film is changed by having his own family threatened because he is present at her recital in the end of the film. I think a lot more could have been done to reinforce his growing realization of how much his family means to him.

Don’t just take my word for it, go see it for yourself!