Foxx, Butler Tough to Abide in 'Citizen'
By: David Sansevere, Jr.
Issue date: 11/25/09 Section: Entertainment
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The film's mixture of elements from Seven, the Saw franchise, and Prison Break must have sounded good on paper, but don't quite work on celluloid.
Despite adequate performances by the film's two leading actors and a strong supporting cast including veteran character actors Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney, and Gregory Itzin, the movie is not very good.
During a home invasion robbery, engineer Clyde Shelton (Butler) witnesses the brutal murder of both his wife and daughter. The perpetrators are quickly caught, but justice is thwarted thanks to prosecutor Nick Rice (Foxx) and his overriding concern for maintaining his high conviction rate.
Rice's explanation of the difference between what is right and what is provable in court is lost on the grieving Shelton.
Using his vast monetary resources, acquired through years of high-level military contracts, and engineering skills, Shelton begins to exact brutal revenge on his family's killers, a well as the justice system that allows such men to go unpunished.
Chief among the film's problems is the lack of a truly sympathetic protagonist.
Butler's Clyde Shelton garners some sympathy initially, but his murder of so many decent people, most of whom are only tangentially connected to the original crime, squanders any pity the audience might feel for him.
One cannot help but wonder how many families, like his own, Shelton destroys in his pursuit of vengeance.
Foxx's Nick Rice is not much better, as the film's first act establishes him as such an unfeeling pencil-pusher that it's difficult to root for him even as he spends the film's second and third acts attempting to foil Shelton's maniacal plans.
Shelton's plans present the second major problem with the film. His overall scheme is complicated to the point of being Rube Goldberg-esque.
Shelton's plan to capture the man who murdered his family is quite possibly the most elaborate abduction scene in the history of modern cinema. The film's draw is clearly intended to deliver shock value. And to this end, the film delivers.
While Shelton's deathtraps are complex, seemingly for the sake of complexity, they are shown throughout the film to be quite effective due to his incredible intellect, and are thus at least believable in some context.
Shelton's eventual capture, and I use the word loosely, as Shelton spends the majority of the film in prison, as part of his plan, is largely unbelievable.
Rice, with the aid of two completely inconsequential police detectives, is somehow able to out-think Shelton and snare him with one of his own traps.
Strangely, Nick Rice, a civil servant lacking the brilliant tactical mind of Clyde Shelton, is able to accomplish this feat.
A good film should leave the viewer with some questions, one of those questions should not be; "Did they cut a scene before the climax, or was it supposed to make such little sense?"
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