filmland / By Charlie Myers

Midnight Movie

The film is gentle satire, but as in Ghost Town, Gervais is very effective in his low-key, self-effacing humor. As it transpires, Garner is his perfect partner here. She’s been effective in comedies before (13 Going on 30; Catch and Release), but her approach here, partly concept-driven, nicely undermines the surface nastiness; even when insulting Mark, Anna seems sympathetic. One might wish for more acerbic commentary, but I’ll settle for the effective comedy. Rated PG-13. 99m. At The Movies.

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN: As an example of the vigilante genre, Law Abiding Citizen breaks no new ground. Indeed, it is thoroughly embedded in the vigilante conventions. An ordinary citizen experiences a terrible wrong at the hands of bad guys (child kidnapped, family murdered, etc.). The legal system proves to be impotent in addressing the problem; in fact, it seems to favor the perps. So, the citizen takes matters into his/her own hands.

Since viewers sympathize initially with the wronged person, the film is supposed to raise important moral and ethical issues. In reality, though, the setup is just an excuse for extreme violence as we cheer the mayhem perpetrated by the formerly ordinary citizen, now an avenging angel.

Here, citizen Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) watches as his wife and daughter are butchered during a home invasion. Enter Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx in coast mode), an assistant district attorney with a 96 percent conviction rate who makes a deal that allows the actual killer jail time instead of death because he testifies against his partner.

Ten years later, we get to watch Clyde go ballistic as he puts his technical expertise to chillingly effective use. Viewers do get to see Rice briefly consider if he made the correct trial decision, but for the most part director F. Gary Gray keeps the action moving quickly enough to prevent real thought. I was grateful. Rated R. 109m. At the Broadway, Mill Creek and Fortuna.

THE STEPFATHER:The Stepfather is a remake of the 1987 thriller of the same name. If I saw that version, I don’t remember it and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I do know that Terry O’Quinn, who is excellent as John Locke on the TV series Lost, played the original title character and I can easily imagine him being effective as the sociopathic killer of trusting single women.

Then again, I found Nip/Tuck‘s Dylan Walsh to be credibly creepy in the current version, and Sela Ward is always a joy to watch. In fact, the acting is the main reason to bother seeing this film, which is otherwise by-the-numbers.

The familiar story has a seemingly nice, sensitive David Harris (Walsh) “accidentally” meeting divorced single mom Susan Harding (Ward) in a grocery store. Shortly thereafter, he’s moved in as Susan’s son Michael (Penn Badgley) discovers when he returns home from military school. Stepdad-to-be and Michael don’t hit it off, and one of the mysteries of the plot is why only Michael and biological dad Jay (Jon Tenney) can see that David is manipulative and evil. It seems overly obvious to the rest of us.

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