Lesson for Screenwriters

Rating: 6/10 (30 April 2011)

Lesson for Screenwriters: You cannot tell a story where the bad guy is at the moral center and still go for a conventional "good guys win" ending. I was rooting for bad guy Clyde (Gerard Butler) all the way in his fight against a corrupt justice system that violates its own principles at every turn. But even as it undermines its own moral foundation (symbolically represented by Clyde's tunnels), the story tries its best to make us favor the DA Nick Rice ( Jamie Foxx) instead. It doesn't work. The result is an exciting, compelling action thriller with a pat and flat ending. It would have been more satisfying if the story had remained faithful to its moral and inevitably nihilistic arc.