Review by Bob Ignizio
LAWLESS
tells the more or less true story of prohibition era moonshiners
the Bondurant brothers: Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Jason Clarke),
and Jack (Shia LeBouf). They're hardly the only ones in Franklin
County, Virginia making and selling bootleg liquor, but they are the
only ones who refuse to give a cut of their profits to the new
Attorney General and his lackey, Special Deputy Charlie Rakes (Guy
Pearce). It doesn't take long for the feud between the two factions
to turn violent, and Forrest winds up with his throat cut. Don't
worry, he gets better.
Given
the larger than life nature of these characters, it's hard for the
film not to glamorize them. However, as was the case in THE
PROPOSITION, director John
Hillcoat's previous collaboration with screenwriter/composer Nick
Cave, the violence these men do is presented in ugly, unflinching
detail that makes it difficult to view anyone in the film as a hero.
That said, this is nowhere near as bleak a film as THE
PROPOSITION. In between
throat-cuttings, castrations, and machine gun assassinations, LAWLESS
actually has a considerable amount of humor. There's even a little
romance, with Chicago expatriate Maggie (Jessica Chastain) doing her
best to get the attention of the clueless Forrest. Meanwhile, Jack
takes on the seemingly futile pursuit of courting Mennonite
preacher's daughter Bertha (Mia Wasikowska).
The
entire cast does excellent work here. LeBouf is clearly relishing the
chance to prove he can do more than run away from CGI robots and
explosions, but it's Hardy who makes the biggest impression with his
minimalist performance. His Forrest is a man of few words, often
communicating a great deal in just a few grunts. He's shy and,
underneath the rough exterior, a nice guy who just wants to take care
of his family, but there's also an undercurrent of violence rippling
just beneath his surface. The female leads (if it's even fair to call
them that) aren't given much to do, but both Chastain and Wasikowska
acquit themselves well with what they're given. Pearce's turn as the
villainous law officer threatens to cross the line into caricature at
times, but you can't say it's not an interesting performance.
Finally,
the soundtrack by Cave and fellow “Bad Seed” Warren Ellis bears
mentioning. They two of them have taken songs by the likes of Captain
Beefheart and The Velvet Underground and re-imagined them in
psuedo-bluegrass form. Cave sings a couple of tracks, but most of the
songs are performed by guest vocalists Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris,
Mark Lannegan, and Ralph Stanley. All too often these days
soundtracks feel generic and/or just thrown together, but this is a
real case of the music adding an extra layer to the film. 3 1/2 out
of 4 stars.
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