Simone’s review published on Letterboxd:
Things I’m thankful for:
• Tom Hardy's mouth
• Gary Oldman's crazy killer man face
• Jessica Chastain's class
• Mia Wasikowska's smile
• Shia LeBoeuf's tearful eyes
• Tom Hardy's face
• Tom Hardy's bad assery
• Guy Pierce's natural penchant for snobbery
• Tom Hardy's silly hat
Now that I have the bullshit off of my chest, on to a real review…
Lawless is an entertaining film that falls just short of greatness because of uninspired writing and some stupid gimmicks/cheap tricks to get a response out of the audience. However, the positives far outweigh the negatives and I'd say it's definitely worth a watch.
The story is too small and straightforward to be anything but predictable. It's basically about the three Bondurant brothers and how they made a living bootlegging in Franklin county. The authorities and rival bootleggers both fight their dominance, and then there's a showdown, and then it's over. The filmmakers tried to lend it more importance with lots of memorable death scenes, rivaling classics such as The Departed in my mind. The major weakness of this film is that the writing is a bit too accessible and the entire story is too neatly packaged. There is a lot of heavy-handed "symbolism" and at times it feels like a "message" is being rammed down your throat. There are larger societal issues that are hinted at and touched upon, but they never get the larger commentary they probably deserve. The ending gives lots of laughs, but as the credits roll, you aren't thinking about the story and the characters or anything of substance. Instead, you're thinking about how big a bad ass Tom Hardy is.
I would describe this as little more than a showcase for brilliant performances. Everyone, especially the top billed stars that only got a few minutes of screen time, did their parts elegantly and powerfully. The two female roles are written to be the typical (read: BORING) love-interest-of-the-main-character-in-a-serious-crime-movie characters, but somehow, they both elevate them to just short of memorable. Mia Wasikowska's performance as Bertha is quite impressive for such a tiny role. She plays the innocent and sweet preacher's daughter adorably. I genuinely feel her excitement and happiness. Jessica Chastain is brilliant as Maggie, but that shouldn't be a surprise at this point. She's always elegant and mesmerizing.
The villains are very fun to watch in this. Gary Oldman conjures up images of his early-career psychopathic crime-boss-kills-for-fun kind of madness (think Leon). I adored him here as I usually do, but his part didn't go quite far enough. I really wanted him to have more screen time. Guy Pierce is probably unrivalled when it comes to the portrayal of snobbery in villain roles these days. His role was written into a corner and all he could do was be vile and disgusting, so that's what he did! His character was way too forthright in his disdain for the lower classes, but like I said before, that wasn't his fault: it was the fault of the screenwriters.
Shia LeBoeuf as Jack really held his own as the youngest Bondurant brother, and I was again pleasantly surprised at his range and talent. If the film had been written better, I feel like he would've had a tougher time fleshing out the character, but he got lucky that everything about his character was easy to portray. He gets to do lots of fun things for an actor, though: he gets to cry, fall in love, get pissed at authority, stand up to his older brother after years of taunting… there was plenty here for him to sink his teeth into, and I think he did so with an abundance of youthful energy and the film was better for it.
The highlight for me (unsurprisingly) was Tom Hardy's character Forrest. He steals the show as the quiet, introverted, brutal, protective, and wise leader of the family. He ends up grunting instead of talking a lot, which is endlessly endearing. A lot of his lines and scenes were genuinely hilarious, especially toward the end. My friends and I were laughing so hard we were crying! He's good for more than just a punch, even though in this film, he has some incredibly memorable and bad ass fight scenes. I didn't think his level of badassery could be heightened further after playing Bane in the Dark Knight Rises and Charles Bronson, but holy shit, does he show up here. The entire theater jumped out of their seats during one particularly violent scene, and rightfully so. It was truly frightening how easily and quietly he used violence to shut people down.
I thought more could've been done with the sets, the cinematography, and the music. There is one contemporary song somewhere in the middle that feels completely out of place and awkward. The cinematography and set design both felt like they were good enough, instead of brilliant, which I think Hillcoat is more than capable of producing. I've seen The Road, so I expected more of him. With Nick Cave on board, I was expecting something on the level of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford kind of quality in terms of the score, but this was no where near that. It was good, but not his best work. As for his screenwriting attempt, I think it was a good start to a possibly promising career path, but it just wasn't refined or nuanced enough to be great.
There are too many things holding back Lawless from being the instant classic it was so desperately trying to be. That being said, I had a bloody good time watching it.