Lawless Review

Jack, Forrest and Howard Bondurant lived in a small town in Franklin County, Virginia, during a time when liquor was illegal but everyone just had to have it. The Bondurant brothers had the means to provide people with the finest moonshine around, but when Special Deputy Charlie Rakes wants a piece of their profit, the Bondurant brothers must be more discreet about their operations.

Lawless is set during one of the most interesting eras to portray in media, we have seen a recent increase in the amount of films set during the prohibition area. Most of them are excuses to show gangster violence and have intense shoot-ups and police chases. What seemed different about Lawless right from the start was that it seemed to want the audience to indentify with one of the three brothers, rather than focus primarily on the gruesome violence.

Now as it progresses, Lawless does take on a merciless approach to violence, having no discretion when it came to the action scenes. Very few films push the realistic violence factor, but Lawless decided to stray away from the overtly stylish killing, and just went straight for the brutal, shorter killing scenes.

Right from the start, I felt connected to the character of Jack, who was the quiet, shy one looking primarily to impress his brothers. As the film takes off, he tries desperately to win the approval of people around him that he begins to put himself and everyone else in jeopardy. Shia Labeouf’s vocal coaching certainly paid off, his drawl playing very nicely as he narrates the film and gives the audience thoughtful insights as to who these three brothers are. How his character Jack was feeling was always apparent, whether he talking to his brothers, his best friend cricket, or his love interest, Labeouf kept using the accent to accentuate his characters personality traits and his ability to grow as a character. Tom Hardy was a man of few words, and at times it seemed even fewer expressions. That’s not to say that role was without a major impact, because Forrest was always the root of the group, the brother that held everything together. At times for Hardy, it would have been good to use more expression if the choice was to use fewer words. Very much like Labeouf did, Hardy when speaking had an accent that was a spot on impression of the era. Guy Pearce on the other hand who was man given very elegant dialogue, failed to use his accent, and in doing so failed to have his character make any sort of impact towards re-creating the prohibition era. Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska did well in their respective female roles, helping shower a softer to side to Forrest and Jack Bondurant, giving us all the more reason to like the characters.

Lawless does a good job of using most of the actors very well, but loses itself in the way of pacing. Some scenes seem to be jumbled and out of place, even completely un-necessary. Floyd Banner (played incredibly by Gary Oldman) was essentially a non-entity as far as the overall plot goes. He did play an important part in the development of Jack’s character, but the first scene in which he appears completely takes away from the slower, more focused action movie Lawless was trying to be.

As mentioned earlier the narration by Shia Labeouf as Jack Bondurant was the most incredible parts of the movie, allowing for a more intimate look into what made these characters tick. The movie itself was written by Nick Cave, who read and spoke exclusively with Matt Bondurant, Jack’s soon about a novel he wrote, chronicling the lives of his father and his two uncles. Matt spent time speaking to family members, family friends and town folk in order to tell the story of his family. Cave was able to take those words, and translate them beautifully for the screen. Labeouf was able to breathe life into them, and help make the Bondurant story come alive through the medium of film.

A well-acted, well written period piece, Lawless is one of the best complete film packages of 2012. Check it out.


8/10