Review: Lawless is bloody brilliant

 Warning: One or two gunslinging spoilers lay ahead! 

Lawless is a wildly intense and frighteningly brutal gangster film adaptation of Matt Bondurant's book, 'The Wettest County in the World', and they're both based on a true story - which is a bit scary! It's crammed with a whole bunch of truly top notch actors who stroll about doing a lot of killing because there's some chaps bootlegging liquor who shouldn't be! That'll be Forrest, Howard and Jack - they're in big trouble pretty much from start to finish, because some posh git off the Titanic really, quite desperately, wants to shoot them in the face - this man is Special Agent Charlie Rakes, and he's had a terrible temper ever since someone stole the middle of his hair.

Talking of actors, Transformers and Indiana Jones 4 really didn't serve Shia LaBeouf very well at all. He's found annoying by the vast majority because of some of his previous roles, but here he does a fantastic job of portraying the youngest of three brothers, trying his best to do a good job and make them proud but failing miserably almost every single time he gives it a shot. He's caught up in a romance that's very sweet to see unfold on screen, but if you watch the film for long enough you begin to realise it functions in much the same way as Eastenders - if people are happy for too long, shit is going to hit the fan any minute. It's really quite nerve-racking to sit through because you're fully aware something's gonna go wrong, someone's gonna die, someone's gonna get shot or punched or raped or forced to watch Total Recall, something hideous whatever it may be. But, as you begin to feel this way you realise that the film's obviously working. Not many movies have a way of making your stomach feel as though it's twisting and turning every time a character makes a dumb decision.

Is that... Ian Beale?

The violence is off the scale, because it's real. Characters behave exactly how you'd imagine they would if they were put in as much agony as they are here. Gore in films such as Hostel or Saw doesn't quite match, because it's so melodramatic and over the top, whereas this and The Cabin in the Woods is horrifying stuff, yet the BBFC slap a 15 classification on both. 15 year olds should be crapping their pants and throwing up at this sort of thing, not chilling out with a box of popcorn and a Tango ice blast.

Another actor worth keeping your eye on here is Tom Hardy. He's really becoming a great 'character actor', in the same way that Johnny Depp somehow always manages to look and sound and act completely differently to whichever movie he starred in that came before. Bane from Batman doesn't even cross your mind. Still, the same can be said for 'Lockout's Guy Pearce. A complete transformation in character. These men are actors, proper actors.

The stakes are raised higher and higher the closer everyone gets to the finish line, and there's a big finale which sort of, well, spoils all that tension a little bit. Not because it's not good, but because by that point we're judging the film against its own standards. We expect a little more. Rakes starts to turn into a panto villain and for the first time, the audience is able to correctly predict what's going to happen. It's nothing to get too upset about though, as overall Lawless will paint a picture of a world you can believe in, one that'll pull you in and toy with your emotions for the entire duration. It feels a lot like a classic, but it doesn't quite get there. Nonetheless, it's a pretty entertaining way to spend 115 minutes sat on your backside.

★★★★☆

 Roo