There’s a new flick coming soon that seems to bring the whole taking justice into your own hands thing a bit too far. Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler star in Law Abiding Citizen, directed by F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator, The Italian Job, Be Cool) and written by Kurt Wimmer.
Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) is an upstanding family man whose wife and daughter are brutally murdered during a home invasion. When the killers are caught, Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), a hotshot young Philadelphia prosecutor, is assigned to the case. Over his objections, Nick is forced by his boss to offer one of the suspects a light sentence in exchange for testifying against his accomplice. Fast forward ten years. The man who got away with murder is found dead and Clyde Shelton coolly admits his guilt. Then he issues a warning to Nick: Either fix the flawed justice system that failed his family, or key players in the trial will die. Soon Shelton follows through on his threats, orchestrating from his jail cell a string of spectacularly diabolical assassinations that can be neither predicted nor prevented. Philadelphia is gripped with fear as Shelton’s high-profile targets are slain one after another and the authorities are powerless to halt his reign of terror. Only Nick can stop the killing, and to do so he must outwit this brilliant sociopath in a harrowing contest of wills in which even the smallest misstep means death. With his own family now in Shelton’s crosshairs, Nick finds himself in a desperate race against time facing a deadly adversary who seems always to be one step ahead.
When I watched the trailer I thought they were trying to sell Butler’s character as a sympathetic lead and that seemed insane given the actions he appears to take, but the description points to Foxx being the protagonist. I suppose that points to a poorly designed trailer, as I really thought they were aiming to have us root for someone assassinating people for fairly normal judicial procedures. Or maybe it’s just a really twisted script or Butler manages to transcend his character’s actions and make us sympathize more with his plight than Foxx’s.
Viola Davis, Bruce McGill, Regina Hall, Michael Gambon, Christian Stolte, Leslie Bibb, Josh Stewart, Colm Meaney and Michael Kelly co-star. I particularly like seeing Michael Kelly after becoming a fan of his through Generation Kill. He was also one of the only bright spots in Changeling.
Law Abiding Citizen will be released on October 16th.
