Movie Review: "Lawless"

Scofflaws.

Based on the true story of the three bootlegging Bondurant brothers during the 1930s in Franklin County, Virginia, Lawless won't quite leave you shaken or stirred, but it's still a solid movie, and Tom Hardy is just the bolt of "white lightning" that you want.

I love period crime drama/thrillers involving Prohibition and gangsters, so I was already inclined toward liking this flick, and for the most part it lived up to expectations.  Better than the clumsily constructed Public Enemies (2009) but nowhere near as riveting as The Untouchables (1987), Lawless neatly fits the bill for a late summer cinema outing ... especially in the absence of Gangster Squad.  Where all those other flicks have urban settings for the most part, though, Lawless takes you not only into the country, but into the woods and back roads of Depression-era rural Virginia where life is tough and the natives even tougher, lawmen and lawbreakers aren't always easy to distinguish, and at night moonshine stills light up the hills for miles around.

The Good:

• Shia LaBoeuf as Jack, youngest of the Bondurant brothers, actually has a character arc, and in it he (well, almost) redeems himself from his horrible turns in the Transformers sequels and the Indiana Jones Sequel That Shall Not Be Named.
• Gary Oldman. Nuff said.
• Guy Pearce is completely oily and disgusting as Charlie Rakes, the corrupt new lawman who comes into town.  His attempt to wring "protection money" from the moonshining locals seems to be working just fine ... until he runs into the defiant Bondurants.
• The film is beautifully shot and a pleasure to look at.
• The energetic soundtrack.
• Tom Hardy as Forrest Bondurant is the single best thing about Lawless.  A massive stogie-chomping crag of a man, he can be almost at the same time terrifying in a fight, unexpectedly humorous in his belief in his own legend, and stonily, almost silently eloquent about everything.  In plenty of scenes, Hardy communicates mostly with grunts, but you know exactly what he is thinking and feeling.

The Bad:

• Shia LaBoeuf is in this movie at all.  Sorry.
• Not enough Gary Oldman. Seriously, it's a crime to have so great a character actor as Oldman, dress him up like this, and then give him so few scenes.  Oldman is bigger than this movie, and next to him, Guy Pearce's twisted lawman looks like a cartoon villain.  Pearce's hair doesn't help him either.
• Jason Clarke as Howard, the third Bondurant brother, is mostly overshadowed by his brothers Jack and Forrest.
• The pacing.  In a few places - a few too many - the movie seems to be taking its own sweet leisurely time.

The Verdict:

Lawless hopes to achieve more than it actually does, and in places it seems torn between trying to be a rip-roaring genre flick and trying to be epic Oscar bait. The storyline, when pared down to its basic elements, won't offer many surprises, but the sheer evocative look and feel of the film and the engaging quality of the cast together are so good that you might just skim over the flaws.

Mad Minerva gives this film a grade of B.

Rotten Tomatoes gives Lawless the Fresh rating of 66%.

Lawless runs 116 minutes and is rated R for bloody gangster violence, some language, and some sexuality and nudity.

Here is the trailer: