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| "Cars that transform into giant metal men, you say? I believe we can break them." |
"They don't make'em like they used to."
There's something to that simple statement that speaks as much to our yearning for the trappings of our youth as it does to our yearning the simplicity of those trappings.
Typically, when that saying is applied to movies, it's used an excuse to gripe that a new film is nowhere near as good as an older film remembered through rose-colored memories. Occasionally, it's used to point out an achievement in cinematic storytelling that harkens back to a "simpler", bygone era of filmmaking that put character and narrative above bombast and spectacle.
Director John Hillcoat and Screenwriter Nick Cave's Lawless, an adaptation of Northern Virginia-born writer Matt Bondurant's The Wettest County on Earth", is a superb example of the second circumstance.
Bringing together a cast that could rival a Nolan production, and borrowing a few of his repertory players to boot, Hillcoat and Cave, craft an affecting, if simple narrative about the Bondurant brothers, three siblings who dominated the moonshine trade during the late 1920's in the isolated Appalachain-esque town of Franklin, Virginia. Tom Hardy, fresh off his lauded performance as the megaphone-voiced Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, plays the eldest Bondurant, Forrest, a reticent, broad shouldered bootlegger who evokes Karl Childers as much as he does Batman's latest heavy, whose is as devoted to the sale and procurement of white lightning as he is the cultivation of his family's legend of invincibility. Shia LaBeouf harness all that qualities that make him the prickly, smart ass you probably love to hate in a role as the youngest Bondurant, Jack, who has his sights set on being a big time gangster in the vein of Al Capone or Floyd Banner (Gotham's own Commissioner Gordon, Gary Oldman, appearing to have finally caught up with Bane). Jason Clarke rounds out the trio as middle brother Howard, a shell-shocked WWI vet who loves the consumption of the bush whiskey a bit more than the rest of his kin.
The Bondurants maintain an iron grip on the distribution in a town where everybody seems to have still, mostly through fear, intimidation, (sounds familiar, I just can't place it) and the propagation of their legend in and beyond Franklin. As the limp hand of Prohibition spreads to Franklin, the Bondurants find themselves forced to face giving up their enterprise to the likes of new Commonwealth attorney Mason Wardell and his foppish right hand Special Agent Charlie Rake (Guy Pearce, clearly reveling in Rake's snide villainy), a dapper hitman well versed in "The Chicago Way". Refusing to back down and undermine their legend and legacy, The Bondurants face enemies from within and beyond Franklin that threaten to change the peace of their kingdom by spilling as much, or more blood, than necessary. Suffice to say, shootings, beatings, and tar and featherings abound.
Lawless sounds terribly simple on paper, and in truth, it is, but the simplicity of narrative is what allowed Cave and Hillcoat to breathe such great life into Lawless' greatest achievements: its characters and the performances. Cave and Hillcoat, both responsible for 2005's phenomenal The Proposition (which also featured Pearce), have crafted some amazing and memorable characters in the Bondurant brothers and their opposition in the form of Charlie Rake. It is rare to come out of the theater today and hold on to the memory of the characters on screen over the spectacle of set pieces or left-field plot twists, but Cave, Hillcoat, and their cast have done an exceptional job in achieving that rarity. Tom Hardy, Shia Labeouf, and Guy Pearce especially excel at building great performances out of characters that were likely amazing on the page. Hardy harnesses his physicality to greater effect here than he did as Bane, making the audience believe his invincible with a few choice actions and even fewer words. In fact, if Lawless was screened right before Dark Knight Rises, I would be much more inclined to believe in the legend of Bane than I did after listening to Alfred Pennyworth's warning. Shia LaBeouf plays the role he has always played as that young punk whose appetite is bigger but not faster than his mouth. yet, in Lawless, his antics have greater context as he lives in the shadow of two brothers whose legend he knows he may never be able to live up to. And, Guy Pearce delivers one of the most memorable gangland villains to hit the screen in a while with his preening, snakish performance that makes the audience laugh at rakes as much as they cringe at his brutality. Even the extended cameos in lawless bear the fruit of great performances as Gary Oldman steps back on the rwrong side of the road with menace and wryness in his role as Banner.
Because Lawless is such a uncomplicated narrative, the performances shine especially bright, but Cave and Hillcoat still manage to integrate a few welcome surprises, all of which a character-based and surprisingly logical despite appearing mythic in nature. Nothing makes this more evident than the closing scenes that focus on Forrest, a man who is defined by an outsized legend. Yet, Cave and Hillcoat wrap things in such a way that will make it hard for many in the audience to restrain an awe-filled smile. In many ways, that is Lawless' most unique and endearing quality. It takes a story built on equal parts legend and fact and weaves them into a narrative that manages to make audiences believe that these characters could ably embody the proportions of the myths built around them. It is also a film that makes you like these characters more than they deserve to be liked. In achieving both tasks, Lawless recalls Brian DePalma's The Untouchables, a movie from my youth that I remember fondly for its great characters and, hindsight being 20-20, simple but effective narrative. Which goes to show that, with the right amount of craft, care and attention to character and narrative, they can make'em just like the used to, if not better.
In-Between Observations:
- Dane Dehaan plays Shia LaBeouf's "sidekick" with as much nuance as he brought to his role as would be world destroyer in Chronicle. Definitely, one to watch.
- Jessica Chastain also does a great job as a Chicago girl looking for peace in the woods of Franklin and brings a quiet dignity to her role that few gangster dames can cop to.
- Lawless manages to wrap up a plot pint in less than ten minutes that FX's Sons Anarchy could not wrap up in almost ten episodes. Ten minutes of screen time vs. ten hours. One point for movies.
- Bane's deadliest weapon is not fear or a gas mask, it's a pair of brass knuckles. Trust me.
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