Lawless movie review & film summary (2012)
We meet the three Bondurant brothers in Franklin County, Va., during the Prohibition. They make excellent moonshine and defend their turf without compromise. Into their backwoods domain ventures Special Agent Charley Rakes (Guy Pearce), a fed from Chicago. He works with the none too enthusiastic local sheriff's department to do — what? Shut them down? Take them over? Kill them all?
This Charley Rakes, he's a piece of work. Here in the deep woods, he sticks out like a riverboat gambler. He's meticulously well-dressed, parts and slicks back his hair like Valentino, and uses so much cologne, he can't sneak up on anyone. He may be the first man in the history of Franklin County to wear dress gloves in the daytime. Pearce creates a detailed, foppish performance, adorning a sadistic personality. Charley is such a snake he deserves to be shot just on principle. One of the movie's mysteries is how he survives for so long.
The three brothers run a combination shop, restaurant and gas station in the backwoods, where as I recall, we never see a customer. It's their center of moonshine operations. The oldest brother is Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy, Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises"). Brother Howard (Jason Clarke) is the most feared in the family. Kid brother Jack (Shia LaBeouf) feels he has never really proved himself to the others, but the movie provides him with the opportunity. What kind of a man is Forrest? When his throat is slit open, he holds the edges of the wound together and sets out to walk through the snow to the hospital.
Drawn to this remote place is a mysterious woman named Maggie (Jessica Chastain) from Chicago, who was a dancer but wanted to move to a more peaceful place. She becomes a waitress, bookkeeper, business manager and Forrest's girlfriend. Young Jack spies an angelic beauty named Bertha (Mia Wasikowska) in church. It's not that he's a churchgoer; he was looking for her. They become sweethearts. The other local character of note is Cricket Pate (Dane DeHaan), a harmless, half-witted innocent who of course is destined to die horribly.
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