Lawless is a grim, slow-burning crime drama that wants to be a period epic and a modern revenge thriller at once. It mostly succeeds on style, and stumbles on pace. The film, directed by John Hillcoat and written by Nick Cave, follows the Bondurant brothers of Franklin County, Virginia, as they run a moonshine operation in 1931. The setup is strong: a family business, a corrupt sheriff, and a violent war over territory. The execution drags in stretches, especially in the middle, where the plot stalls beneath its own weight.
Tom Hardy plays Forrest, the brains of the operation, while Shia LaBeouf plays Jack, the younger brother who dreams of escape. Jason Clarke rounds out the trio as Howard, the muscle. Guy Pearce shows up as Charlie Rakes, the Chicago lawman who comes to town to shut the brothers down. The cast is uniformly excellent, and the chemistry between the three brothers carries the film’s quieter stretches.
Gary Oldman and Mia Wasikowska round out the supporting cast as Floyd Banner and Bertha Minnix, respectively. Jessica Chastain plays Maggie Beauford, the waitress Forrest hires, and her performance anchors the film’s emotional core. Her scene with Forrest, where she hides a brutal assault from him rather than drag him into vengeance, is the film’s best moment.
The film’s biggest weakness is pacing. At 115 minutes, it feels stretched thin. The middle section, which covers the brothers’ quiet resistance to Rakes, could lose twenty minutes without losing meaning. The violence, when it arrives, is brutal and effective. A scene where Jack is beaten by Rakes in Cricket’s house lands because the film has spent time building the stakes.
“When the law became corrupt, outlaws became heroes.”
That tagline sums up the film’s thesis, and it’s a fair one. The Bondurants are not saints, but they are the only honest men in a corrupt system. The film’s Southern Gothic atmosphere, shot in the Appalachian countryside, adds texture. The cinematography is moody and atmospheric, and the production design sells the era.
Where Lawless falls short is in its final act. The climax, which involves a confrontation between the brothers and Banner’s crew, feels rushed after a long stretch of slow plotting. The resolution is abrupt, and the film ends before the story fully closes.
The film is not a failure. It is a well-made, occasionally brilliant movie that suffers from structural issues. The performances are strong, the premise is strong, and the atmosphere is strong. What isn’t strong is the middle.
Lawless is worth seeing for Hardy’s performance alone, but the film’s flaws are real and they’re large. It’s a film that knows exactly what it wants to be, and then spends too much time getting there. It’s a solid entry in the crime genre, but it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the films it emulates.
5.8 out of 10.
Trailer, via FilmKritikTV.
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