Review of Lawless (2012) by Mark D — 25 May 2013
It's so rare to come across a great movie that I'm shocked when I find one. This is not perfect, but it gets so many things right, that it's easy to look over the missteps.
I'll admit that as soon as I saw "based on a true story" my heart sank. I've said in the past how I really, really hate those words. It's just so distracting for me. Fortunately, up until the end, I was able to forget that I was watching a lie.
Everyone is great here, including Shia. It's nice to see him in a "real" role, outside of the crappy Transformers movies. Tom Brady's role is subdued, but he does it so well. Guy Pearce is amazing as the fancy Chicago cop. It's nice to see him in such a cool role.
The only iffy character is Maggie, played by Jessica Chastain. She does well enough, but she has no real purpose outside of being a token female. I wonder if it's even a real character, lor just made up to have a woman in the movie. Sure feels that way.
It ends up being quite a violent tale, with bloody gunfights throughout.
The ending is a bit hard to swallow, and once again, I wonder if it really happened this way. I figure they couldn't fudge that, though, without people squawking, so it must be. Truly bizarre.
I really liked this movie, overall. It had a great atmosphere, good direction, and some great characters. Very much recommended.
This review of Lawless (2012) was written by Mark D on 25 May 2013.
Lawless has generally received positive reviews.
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