31 July 2013

Lawless

Lawless was certainly NOT flawless. And I'm not just talking about Tom Hardy's accent - as pretty as he is I think I could understand him better playing Bane. Anyway (sorry Tom) this screenplay is based on true events first documented in 'The Wettest Country in the World' (2008) written by Matt Bondurant. We are in 1931, introduced to a family who are producing moonshine during prohibition and successfully getting away with it until Charlie Rakes (Guy Pearce) shows up to, as he so lightly puts it - get those mother f*ker's and so he does.

Despite having an entertaining script from Nick Cave with 2 and a half hours of hats, violence, smoking, courting and crazy country dancing it still wasn't enough to keep you really captivated. However I did enjoy this western in spite of the writers spending too much time on scenes that didn't have any real value in developing the narrative forward. Guy Pearce is as commendable as always with Shia LaBeouf closely following giving a very solid and tenacious performance showing us how far the boy from Holes (2003) and Even Stevens (2000) has progressed. With gangsters being rife and the main characters owning a distillery and bootlegging business - you know this is a recipe for disaster , literally.  When people start to get killed and Floyd Banner (Gary Oldman) steps in things really get going and it was disappointing that it look a while for the film to get there. I really thought that the writers had us going when the main man Forrest Bondurant (Hardy) gets shot about 10 times and that they were going against Hollywood by killing  him off, pah - it takes more than bullets and a cut to the jugular for this one to die. This is pretty violent stuff and rated 18 for a reason. We have full frontal from Jessica Chastain and I have to say that the gory fight scenes are beautifully shoot or should I say brutally, making you cease up when someone on screen is receiving a 'Scorsese' like beating.

Good soundtrack, strong cast, great gun fights but there was something missing. Maybe we all need to grab a copy of the book and have a browse.

Directed by John Hillcoat
116mins, 18 (2012)

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