Directed by:
John HillcoatScreenplay:
Nick CaveCinematography:
Benoît DelhommeCast:
Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Jason Clarke, Guy Pearce, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Chris McGarry, Tim Tolin, Gary Oldman, Lew Temple (more)VOD (5)
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Set in 1920s prohibition era America, Lawless is the true story of the Bondurant brothers. Brazen and fearless, these young rural bootleggers became legendary criminals. The youngest brother, Jack (Shia LaBeouf), is ambitious and impulsive, the middle brother, Howard, is loyal but reckless and eldest brother, Forrest (Tom Hardy), leads the family with a silent determination. As the Bondurants' illicit business and legend grows, so too looms the danger of bigger fish, and it's not long before the brothers must face the consequences. (Momentum Pictures)
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I have always liked the genre and the sight of the cast that participated in Lawless was reassuring to me. I wasn't even warned by some of the critical reactions from my favorite reviewers. After watching it, however, I'm joining in with the biggest critics. The effort of the crew to shoot something great cannot be overlooked, but only the set design can be accepted without reservation. The casting turned out to be a disaster. Shia LaBeouf is unremarkable and incredibly annoying with his good-natured face. In the relevant genre, he is unquestionably the most annoying protagonist I can think of. Tom Hardy is established in genre cinema as an actor portraying tough guys, including economy of speech. But here, he manages with just one expression throughout, pushing his performance towards the boundaries of caricature. Guy Pearce, with his terrible overacting, in my opinion, crosses the line in his portrayal of the main villain. The other actors only fulfill the expectations we have of typical characters from the Prohibition era. Jessica Chastain looks beautifully corrupt, and Mia Wasikowska is a pure soul, pleasing at least the male audience. The film has a sluggish pace, occasionally interrupting the viewer's lethargy with a drastic scene. The western scheme that John Hillcoat tries to graft onto his film seems inappropriate and leads to WTF scenes like a bloody reckoning while the entire police force passively watches. To sum it up, the first half is boring, and the second gets on your nerves. Overall impression: 40%.
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Considering how precisely this movie was made, I missed something that would suck me into the story so that it could blow my mind with each new scene. The actors were great, the shots were amazing, the atmosphere of the first half of the 20th century was awesome, but the entire movie falls on small details. For example, I thought that the ending was a farce. And the entire shoot-out was like children meeting in the sandpit and sling-shooting pebbles at each other. Nobody knows who hit whom, some people are lying on the ground, some aren’t and some people are faking being hit. Really strange. Considering that this movie is so incredibly realistic, I’m lacking some sort of an eye for scenes that should have been key scenes and they were a flop instead. A shame.
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It is excellently mixed both in terms of characters and style, as well as audiovisual composition. It is clear from the very beginning that it will not be a technically inventive and sophisticated film, but rather a slightly intimate and twisted ride that, in some aspects, reminds of Tarantino in the violence, the antagonist and the dialogues. However, it is a classic, linearly told gangster story about friendship and love during the Prohibition era. Some things may not work as they should or are a bit of a safe bet (the musical score, shootouts where we wouldn't expect them, the final carnage). But that the screenplay is unpredictable, you don’t know what will happen in 10 minutes, and this tells me that this thing certainly deserves high ratings and recognition. It is difficult within the genre to create something original based solely on internal, non-technical attributes of a film. At least partially, they have succeeded here.
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A slice of family history that only works in its two hours of runtime when it scores points with good actors and brutal violence, but also forgets the characters. Hardy just grunts and LaBeouf builds an empire out of nothing; it’s got the same feelings as Proposition, copying from everywhere, but with a beautiful signature.
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Do you love Prohibition? Okay, then. Are you ready for some real bloody carnage? Okay, then. Are you interested in something more than just a bloody slaughter? Then you're in the wrong place. Of course, for those interested in a more comprehensive look at Prohibition, I recommend the series Boardwalk Empire.
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