I'll be blunt, I came into this film with low expectations. Shia LeBouf was never my favorite actor, apart from when he played Stanley Yelnats in Holes (even if he was badly mis-cast). I was getting ready to hear him yell things towards something past the audience and watch him force himself to cry, which is one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. Apart from my low expectations, I kept an open mind and, let me say, I was pleasantly surprised.
The basic premise of Lawless tells a story about a family of country bootleggers in Franklin, a small village somewhere hear Chicago. As prohibition came to fruition, the law started buckling down. Enter Guy Pearce, the Special-Super Deputy in charge of seeing over the shutting down of all stills and confiscation of all moonshine out of Franklin. What follows is an account of the Bounderant family taking a stand for their own product and going against the law.
The acting in this movie is quite good, with the performance of Gary Oldman being short but meaningful. Guy Pearce makes a really good bad guy, almost Jude Law-esque from Road to Perdition. Shia holds his own and the supporting cast isn't bad, but Tom Hardy steals the show as the "invincible" Forrest Bounderant. As the title suggests, Forrest is a badass in this film. I can't go into details for fear of disclosing spoilers, but just know that Hardy once again makes us fall in movie-love with his character.
The story is quite good, giving the audience a different look to the bootlegging scene. The HBO show Boardwalk Empire provides an inside look at upper-class bootlegging while Lawless takes us into where the alcohol originates: in the country. There are twists and turns in the plot and the ending wraps everything up nicely.
All-in-all I'd recommend this movie. It's a solid all-around film, and although it seems to drag out sometimes there's plenty of action to boot.
+3 for Tom Hardy
+3 for story-telling
+1 for supporting cast
The basic premise of Lawless tells a story about a family of country bootleggers in Franklin, a small village somewhere hear Chicago. As prohibition came to fruition, the law started buckling down. Enter Guy Pearce, the Special-Super Deputy in charge of seeing over the shutting down of all stills and confiscation of all moonshine out of Franklin. What follows is an account of the Bounderant family taking a stand for their own product and going against the law.
The acting in this movie is quite good, with the performance of Gary Oldman being short but meaningful. Guy Pearce makes a really good bad guy, almost Jude Law-esque from Road to Perdition. Shia holds his own and the supporting cast isn't bad, but Tom Hardy steals the show as the "invincible" Forrest Bounderant. As the title suggests, Forrest is a badass in this film. I can't go into details for fear of disclosing spoilers, but just know that Hardy once again makes us fall in movie-love with his character.
The story is quite good, giving the audience a different look to the bootlegging scene. The HBO show Boardwalk Empire provides an inside look at upper-class bootlegging while Lawless takes us into where the alcohol originates: in the country. There are twists and turns in the plot and the ending wraps everything up nicely.
All-in-all I'd recommend this movie. It's a solid all-around film, and although it seems to drag out sometimes there's plenty of action to boot.
+3 for Tom Hardy
+3 for story-telling
+1 for supporting cast