Set in depression-era Franklin, Virginia, comes the true story of three brother bootleggers avoiding the law, pre-prohibition. They’re mixing moonshine and dealing with all that goes with the territory of twisted authorities
wanting a piece of their profits. The movie opens on young Jack (Shia LeBeouf) afraid to pull a trigger on a pig, but his brothers Forrest (Tom Hardy) and Howard (Jason Clarke, perfectly cast as a bad sibling since he starred in the brilliant TV drama “Brothers”) have no problem protecting what’s theirs.
Charlie (Guy Pearce) is the new deputy while Floyd (Gary Oldman) shows up every now and then for little purpose (as do many other characters) and suddenly you have a lot of people showing up but nobody quite going anywhere. Of course every film needs a couple of useless love interests, in this case, Bertha( Mia Wasikowska) is the Preacher’s daughter/love interest of LeBeouf and Maggie (Jessica Chastain) is the love
interest of Hardy. Speaking of showing up, she just keeps appearing everywhere in Hollywood.
If last summer brought us Cowboys and Aliens this summer brings us Hillbillies and Gangsters. And these backwoods hillbillies have a point… It’s every Americans rite to run a business and they operate best (with guns, blood, and broken noses) when they’re under the influence themselves. Oddly that’s also when the film comes to life. And as an audience we find ourselves hanging on those bashing-in-the-skull moments to rock those Blue Ridge Mountain scenes.
Lawless goes from useless to worthless to worthy, as the bad guys get badder and the good guys get badder, too. And most important, Shia LeBoeuf proves he can finally act. Two and a half tiaras