Review of Lawless (2012) by Harry W — 13 Aug 2013

Lawless suffers from a thin plot and lack of creativity, but its strongly stylish and is an astoundingly well acted crime thriller with high-concept violence to it.

Lawless doesn't have much plotting since the dynamics are never that creative and don't deviate away from the small scale crime of the single town Lawless predominantly takes place in, and the focus is primarily on the style of the film in terms of the way it looks and the quantity of blood in it without a deep dive into the substance of the dramatics.

Also, certain plot elements seem merely to have been thrown in there for brief dramatic effect without ever really continuing on anywhere else afterwords, causing Lawless to be ridden with too many subplots for its own good which become ignored, and frankly the only thing to focus on is the main plot which you have to wane through many subplots to have the film stripped down to.

Essentially, Lawless gets clustered in some of the shallow plot elements and focus on style over substance.

Yet, it works. Lawless works because the bare essential plot is a simple yet interesting one and is told in a strongly stylish manner with exquisite cinematography, fine film editing, strong music and a lush directional job by ________. Plus, it's never short on blood which makes it a strong brutal crime thriller. It's also well scripted and is filmed in lavish locations. Plus, amongst the plot are important themes which the story follows, themes of brotherhood and devotion, as well as fighting the power of a corrupt world enforcing an obsolete law. Also, the action was great and shot to perfection, without the story ever relying on it as a medium of storytelling.

But what makes Lawless work so well is how incredibly well acted it is, so well acted that the audience is able to connect with the characters finely even as they charter into complicated and not-so-common dynamics.

For one thing, Tom Hardy takes his role head on and incorporates excellent strength and confidence into his character, adding another performance to his string of success. He provides a brutally strong character with those qualities of his own from within himself. Tom Hardy just truly continues to impress me, and I have no doubt that he could get nominated for an Academy Award one day.

Jessica Chastain also steps into her role of Maggie Beauford strongly and portrays the woman gracefully with strong emotional drama as well as sex appeal, and she carries her drama well.

But the standout performance comes from Shia LaBeouf. An actor known for his limited range of teenage oriented film performances, in Lawless he expands his talents to the wider audience and film genre, capturing the youngest brother in a crime syndicate family with exquisite line delivery and gripping character intensity. His performance must be seen to be believe, and it is worth it because Shia LaBeouf is thoroughly impressing in Lawless.

Quintessentially, Lawless has enough well acted and strongly built film qualities to overshadow its issues.