MOVIE REVIEW - Lawless

New this week is the drama, Lawless.

Lawless is a look at the bootlegging done in rural Virginia during prohibition in the 1930's. It deals specifically with the legend of the Bondurant family. This is sort of a true story, as it was written from a member of the Bondurant family many years later and brought to the screen here.

In short, the Bondurant brothers were major bootleggers from a rural county in Virginia. As prohibition moved on, clearly there was less ability to control illegal alcohol making and distribution. So, the Virginia state government decides to try to cash in on the whole deal. If certain members are paid off, safe passage and head turning will continue for the bootleggers to get their shipments through. This is a story of government corruption on the local and state level.

All of the bootleggers agree, except the Bondurant brothers. They say no to the pay off thing, and will continue to not only ship their booze through free of charge, but actually plan to increase production all in the face of political officials. Needless to say, a war ensues and the battle is on. It's a fight to the death match.

The Bondurtants in this movie are depicted as an extremely loyal and tight bunch. They are essentially "organized crime" on the rural level, and not the level say in Chicago during that historical period. They are a ruthless bunch, that seem almost immortal, in that they survive death time and time again. Kudos in some regards to this movie. It is a story you don't know and have never seen before. All of the performances are pretty good, led by Tom Hardy as Forest Bondurant, the leader of the clan. He is great as a steely, angry and calculating leader. Shia LaBeouf as his brother Jack, the younger brother desperate for his brothers approval.

Also Guy Pearce as the head law man, and overall horrible human being Charles Rakes is really great. There is a a strong and capable supporting cast that runs through this entire picture, and there is some to like here. But in the end Lawless just has something missing and it's hard to put your finger on it.

Lawless just might not have enough compelling stories to tell within this movie. This might be better told as a documentary in another forum. I think this is certainly interesting enough, but Lawless lacks the memorable or powerful scenes that most really good movies have. This is an ensemble cast and that's fine. But sadly, it's an ensemble of decent scenes and stories and lacks a real nice one-two combination punch that it needs.

Lawless looks pretty good as we travel back to early 20th century Virginia, but it's not totally immersing, and it's needs to be. As hard as they tried, you don't feel that you are actually there, but rather are watching from afar, and that hurts too. This also has a very strange musical soundtrack that at times is irritating and seems strangely out of place in others. Toss in a couple of off track side plots and what you have here is a movie that isn't what is should have been.

Lawless. There is some good here, but overall an opportunity missed.