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“Lawless” unfolds along a very dusty stretch of Prohibition-era Virginia, and it’s peppered with cocksure symbolism like roosters pecking at each other’s necks, but there aren’t nearly enough raw and rugged touches from director John Hillcoat to break this booze-soaked drama out of a traditionalist bracket. The manly fervor is more than present among moonshine-making brothers Jack (Shia LaBeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy), and Howard (Jason Clarke) Bondurant, and their outlaw exploits include ferocious beatdowns that stress the film’s R-rating, but if you’re looking for the same blood-and-dirt auteurism found in Hillcoat’s “The Proposition,” you’ve snuck into the wrong speakeasy.
“Lawless” and “The Proposition” share the same screenwriter, multi-hyphenate Nick Cave, who, like Hillcoat, hails from Australia. Also taking on scoring duties, rocker Cave cooks up plenty of fine exchanges for a dream cast, which also includes Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, Dane DeHaan, and starlets of the moment Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska. But the plot tends to roll along more tidily than the director, actors or subject matter deserve, with the villains, damsels and antiheroes blandly abiding by some unseen Hollywood rulebook. The characterizations are, by and large, rather thin, with a terrific actor like Hardy reduced to mere grunting as the authoritative family head.
The film does manage to keep you engaged throughout, despite the burning desire for something more distinct. And while there’s a fair amount of compromise, “Lawless” keeps intact the transgressive appeal of crime, which has proved essential to every good gangster saga. When Oldman’s legendary thug rolls through the brothers’ town, LaBeouf’s protagonist looks on like a rabid fan, at last in the presence of his tommy-gun-toting idol. And while some will surely balk at his unbound scenery-chewing, Pearce is aces as a corrupt special agent, urged to viciously stand out as this year’s Christoph Waltz.
“Lawless” is keen enough to grasp the lure and peril of the many levels of villainy, and though tied up neatly, it ultimately takes a page from “The Sopranos,” implying that the life of an outlaw isn’t special, and can abruptly end at any moment.
Lawless
R
Two-and-a-half reels out of four
Now playing in area theaters
Recommended Rental
The Five-Year Engagement
R
Available Tuesday
Standout stars Emily Blunt and Jason Segel star in this celebrated comedy about a young couple who can’t quite make it to the alter. Blunt continues to make good on the great promise she showed in “The Devil Wears Prada,” and Segel works to his strengths while re-teaming with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” director Nicholas Stoller. Produced by Judd Apatow, the film co-stars Rhys Ifans, Alison Brie and Chris Pratt.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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