Review: Lawless

Went up to see Daughter #1 at college and one night the "gang" went out to the movies. There, we divided and went separate ways, the younger ones going to see FINDING NEMO 3D, which I felt would be sheer torture to see again, even if was now in 3D, (look for a forthcoming rant on the "regurgitation" of old movies coming back through the theater, new and improved in 3D) So all of us over the age of eighteen, Daughter #1, Boyfriend, Jon and I, went to see the new release LAWLESS, which is Not a remake and is Not a sequel, for that the movie already has a couple gold stars!

LAWLESS is based Matt Bondurant's 2008 novel "The Wettest County in the World", which highlights his grandfather and great uncles adventures in bootlegging in the hills and hallows of Virginia during Prohibition.

The oldest, toughest and funniest brother, Forrest Bondurant, is plated by Tom Hardy  reviewed HERE  in ....

 

and most recently known for being the bad guy in the new Batman....

 

 

Which I confess I have no desire to see, even before the horrid shooting in Aurora, Colorado. I thought the first DARK KNIGHT was "darker than it needed to be" and unfortunately the sad loss of Heath Ledger, wasn't enough to reconsider just how dark films needed to be, but I digress again! I did enjoy Hardy in WARRIOR and I forgot he was also in Reese Witherspoon most recent movie, which also starred Chris Pine....

A so, so movie, haven't really enjoyed Witherspoon as of late, but Hardy and Pine are funny in it.

 

In Lawless, the youngest brother is played by Shia Beouf...

 

known for the Transforming franchise....

 

 

But pretty funny in his younger days in a great family film....

 



 

In LAWLESS, Beouf and his buddy beginning "souping up" their vehicles to race the bootleg to the next county, highlight the history between the Southern history of Nascar...

 

 

The "girls", there are barely two and they barely talk and they don't talk to each other, about anything, so the movie fails the "girl test" greatly- see here

Beouf's love interest is played by Mia Wasikowska, who the whole movie I could not place and had to imdb.com her- She was Alice!

 

The other "girl", a dancer trying to get away from the mob is played by Jessica Chastain, who traded covers with the Duchess for the August 2012 Vanity Fair cover and had an interesting photo spread and article inside.

 

Chastain is relatively new, she was the Southern wife who got cooking lessons from her maid in THE HELP.

 

 I was prepared for LAWLESS to be overtly bloody and violent and was pleasantly surprised that the "dark side" of the movie was blended in to the story and did not feel like it was inserted to full fill a "gore" quota.

Don't get me wrong, LAWLESS was disturbing, for the time and place in history was disturbing and I wondered how accurate the movie portrayed the hillbillies and corrupt lawmen, the mob and the women isolated and with little restriction on their morality. What I know about the history of that time, it was probably right on, the feel much like the popular and hopefully soon to be back FX T.V. series...

Stories set in the hallows and hills of the South seem to be  always on the dark side- I can relate- living in the Four Corners, where deep wide canyons and deserts make hiding away an easy thing to do and are a host for some interesting characters.