"Lawless" is exactly the kind of frustrating film that makes it hard to write a review. This is a movie that should have had legitimate five-star potential with an excellent cast, great craftsmanship and very snappy dialogue and action. And yet, as I write this review, I can only think that this film should have been more than what I saw on screen, that "Lawless" ended up being a film of what should have been rather than what was.
The film is based on the book "The Wettest County in the World" by Matt Boundant. The film tells the story of the Boundant brothers: Forrest (Tom Hardy), Howard (Aussie import Jason Clarke) and Jack (Shia LaBeouf). Forrest is the leader of the group as Howard is sort of the enforcer and Jack is the runt of the litter.
The brothers are bootleg moonshiners operating out of Franklin County, Va., and they defend their turf with the utmost ferocity and violence. The brothers have deals with the local law enforcement, and all is good until a service agent from Chicago named Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) shows up and begins to cause trouble for the brothers' business. Rounding out our cast of characters is a dancer named Maggie Beauford (Jessica Chastain) who travels from Chicago and tries to start anew working at the Boundant bar and Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), who is the local preacher's daughter that Jack routinely tries to swoon.
The other thing that first springs to mind is the film is severely limited by the fact that Jack narrates the film. Hardy, Pearce and Chastain all give terrific performances and create really intriguing characters, so it is really a let down whenever we have to return to LaBeouf to receive information. In fact, one of the things I kept scribbling down in my notebook while watching the film is that the relationship between Forrest and Maggie is infinitely more interesting than that of Jack and Bertha. In Forrest and Maggie, we see two people who are desperately trying to survive by the only way they know how. Their relationship is intimate, interesting and the pulse of this film. The one image I can clearly remember is the scene where Forrest is watching Maggie while he thinks she is sleeping and at the same time she is laying awake, presumably thinking of him. It's a very powerful and moving image.
On the other hand, the relationship between Jack and Bertha feels like a bad retread of every generic young love scenario you can think of. They are two who don't seem to want much of anything. Jack is shallow and obsessed with his image and constantly endangers his friends, and Bertha is the preacher's daughter who abides strictly to his rules. There just isn't anything between them to hold my interest.
The violence in "Lawless" borrows from the Coen brothers' school of hyper realistic and intensely graphic violence. Men don't simply shrug off punches in this film. Punches do devastating damage to each character that makes you wonder how they ever recover from receiving such punishment. One particular scene where Forrest exacts revenge on two mobsters from Chicago - a lot of people come from Chicago in this film - is one of the more gruesome acts of violence you can imagine.
The rivalry between Forrest and Charlie is actually very strong in "Lawless." They each provide very worthy foils to each other and share a very interesting dynamic on screen. The issue is that Rakes disappears during the middle act of the film to make room for more scenes with Bertha and Jack.
Gary Oldman also makes a small appearance in the movie as Floyd Banner, a gangster who Jack aspires to be. Oldman is good while on screen, but his role is so small, it's almost distracting while he's on screen.
"Lawless" marks the second collaboration between writer - and musician - Nick Cave and director John Hillcoat. Cave's dialogue is very sharp for the most part and Hillcoat does an exceptional job of setting up the space of the film for the audience. At times, I think Hillcoat could pace the film better and I think the ending needs to be rewritten because it doesn't make sense given what we were building towards for the whole film. In many ways, I think the ending undermines the character arcs of Forrest and Maggie.
"Lawless" is a film which at times snarls and crackles with all the fury of a mountain lion, and during these moments, it is a very good film. At other times, however, it grinds to a halt and lets out no more than a mere whimper. There needs to be far more of the former and far less of the latter for this film to take the next step.
"Lawless" receives 3.5 out of 5 stars.
-á
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