But I digress, as I always do with the
details.
The duo has taken the wonderfully titled non-fiction family-history novel “The Wettest County in the World” by (my proximity) local author Matt
Bondurant and drably re-titled it as “Lawless.” It follows a backwoods trio of Bondurant
brothers (Tom Hardy, Shia LeBeouf, and Jason Clarke) who moonlight as moonshiners,
selling the vile-looking homemade hooch during the days of Prohibition. Sure
enough, things go wrong. In the span of just a few weeks, a (1) former go-go dancer, (2) infamous mob boss, and (3) corrupt federal agent -– all from
Chicago, all on separate missions in life -– end up in wee Rocky Mount,
and onto the brothers, they respectively, 1) Land a job at the family diner/gas
station, 2) Sniff out killer booze to sell back home, and 3) Terrorize the siblings
with endlessly wicked means of unlawful law enforcement. The newcomers are
played by 1) Jessica Chastain, 2) Gary Oldman, and 3) Guy Pearce.
The Rocky
Mount and Chicago depicted here each must have one only dirt road going out,
and it meets in the middle, and provide light-speed travel a la “Star Trek.” Hell,
today in real life, it takes roughly 12 hours to get from Rocky Mount to Chicago. Here,
pre-Interstate, pre-cruise control, it is magically faster. How fast is to get to Philadelphia? Does the title refer to liquor running, or the rules of physics, time, and distance?
But no matter these logic lapses, nor the
cliché dialogue, “Lawless” floats and sinks on the acting. I’ll focus on the
guys as the women (Mia Wasikowska also co-stars as a love interest) are only
allowed to look “purty” and be supportive to their menfolk. Tom “Bane” Hardy grunts most of his scenes to ill-advised comic effect, while Clarke
howls madly with his slimly written character. LeBeouf, former son of Indiana Jones, gives his best as a wimpy runt who must become a hardened man, but his
character arc is foolish in the end. Oldman’s nasty scenes are a mere but oh-so-welcome series of cameos.
It’s –- shocker -- Pearce that
near kills this film. “Proposition,” “Memento” and “L.A. Confidential” are each new classics, and he excels in all. Here, he overacts himself right out
of the movie as a sissy snot named Rakes, channeling Dennis Hopper playing Dame Edna playing an endlessly psychotic version of super-agent-man Elliot Ness with a subscription to GQ for Sadists. Sporting ridiculously greased and
parted hair, and shaved eyebrows, Rakes fears blood, and yet –- it is inferred -– gets his thrills raping crippled boys after he murders them in the woods. In a gangster flick in the New York of Mars by David Lynch on full-tilt “Wild at Heart” craziness, his character would stick out as a ridiculous clown. Here? Please.
Oh, one piece of divine greatness: Legendary bluegrass
singer and Southwestern Virginia native Ralph Stanley covers the Velvet Underground’s “White
Light /White Heat” at film’s end, and it’s an absolutely riveting, soul
crushing performance that deserves a far better movie to precede it. For that matter, the entire music score, led by the genius Cave, elevates the movie, especially a breath-taking church singing which hits the soul dead center with pure joy-of-God beauty that can uplift an agnostic. The film misses. C
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