Imagine with me that your life is going normally and suddenly turns into hell and instead of taking your rights by law you find yourself forced to take them into your own hands This is exactly what happened to Clyde Shelton in Law Abiding Citizen a movie that starts with a shock and stays on your toes until the last second.
The story is about a normal man living a quiet life until a gang breaks into his house and kills his wife and daughter in cold blood in front of him What really burns the blood is that the judiciary failed to achieve justice and the criminals received a reduced sentence due to a dirty legal game Here Clyde reaches a fateful decision If the law will not bring him his rights he will take them himself but not in a random way no He plans every step as if he is playing chess with the entire judiciary.
What is interesting in the movie is that revenge here is not just killing and thats it Clyde is a genius at planning and he carries out his operations while sitting in the cell as if he controls the whole world with a button This is what makes the prosecutor Nick Rice start to panic because he is not chasing an ordinary criminal he is facing a man who has nothing to lose and understands the legal system better than those who made it.
The film raises a very important question If the law betrays you do you have the right to take revenge Or does revenge make you turn into a monster like the one who wronged you Although the film is full of action and excitement at the same time it plays on this psychological conflict and makes you hesitate between sympathizing with Clyde or fearing what he is doing.
Law Abiding Citizen is not a traditional action film it is a film about anger about justice that is sometimes just a word and about the fine line between right and wrong The ending of the film may not be what everyone expected but it will certainly leave you thinking Who was right in this story.