Lawless review

              What is the fascination with people and crime, specifically crime in movies? I myself am a big fan the kind that involves violence towards authority types and the planning and stealing of things.  Crime genres are marketable because they can become a vicarious wish fulfillment for the audience. Gangster movies in particular capitalize on the exploitation of the American dream.  “Lawless”, a new period gangster film, brought to us by Aussie auteur John Hillcoat (“The Road”, “The Proposition”) and writer Nick Cave— who has fronted several successful rock outfits like The Bad Seeds, The Birthday Party, and Grinderman—presents an unabashedly apologetic representation of the outlaw that is both ultra-violent and idealistic at the same time.

This film, based on the novel “The Wettest County in the World” by Matt Bondurant, is a supposed true-story about a family of brothers in the 30’s who work in Franklin-County Virginia as bootleggers during prohibition.  The eldest brother Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) has created a unique relationship with the police in his town, by ways of intimidation and sometimes accommodation. What is created is a special kind of ‘don’t-ask-don’t-tell’ protocol that seems to work at keeping peace between the lawless and law enforcement.   Shia LeBeouf plays the youngest brother Jack, a bright-eyed gangster-wannabe who has eyes on the preacher’s daughter (Mia Wasikowska). Jason Clarke plays the middle child Howard, a hotheaded alcoholic who is always one comment away from rolling up his sleeves. Things change when a Chicago special deputy named Charley Rakes (Guy Peirce) enters the town and decides to makes the Bondurant brothers his special project.  Out of desperation, the brothers turn to mob to sell their hooch and eventually things get complicated and bloody.

Almost like “The Godfather” for the hillbilly set, this is a movie about brotherhood, masculinity and living by a familial set of morals and ethics. So many individual things about this movie showcase pop-entertainment at its highest caliber.  The sets and period costuming are spectacular, the soundtrack will send you to iTunes as soon as you get home and the direction by Hillcoat is equally visceral and contained. As an ensemble film the performances are all fantastic, especially by Tom Hardy who gives us another stunning physical portrayal and Guy Perce as the corrupt gentlemen-dandy, who also happens to be a sadistic psychopath.  Unfortunately where the movie fails for me is in Caves overambitious screenplay.

Because the story deals with so many individual characters and their individual arcs within the story, much of the plot becomes convoluted, episodic, and sometimes it just feels as though it’s making its self-up as it goes. By including two separate romances (one involving Tom Hardy and a waitress played by Jessica Chastain and the other with LeBeouf and Wasikowska) as well as another subplot dealing with the mob's battle with the police (and whatever it is that’s at stake for them) many story threads seem to be battling each other for screen time, leaving most of the secondary characters underdeveloped and the pacing erratic.

                Being based on a novel, I can see how all of these scene-bits were supposed to piece together, creating a sprawling epic story about the nature of the depression-era in American history. However as a condensed screenplay, “Lawless” feels like a two hour first-season recap of one of the coolest TV-shows that never existed.  With all of that said, I still have to recommend this movie despite all of its obvious storytelling problems. I do so because of the effectively sullen atmosphere, Hillcoat’s impressive display of craft within each scene and because it was genuinely unpredictable.  It’s not going to win any Oscars but it will end up on my DVD shelf.

Grade: B –

Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/Sep-2012