Rick Fulton reviews the best of the DVDs released this week including Lawless starring Batman baddie Tom Hardy.
LAWLESS (18) ****
BATMAN baddie Tom Hardy stars with Shia LaBeouf as bootleg booze brothers in early 1930s Virginia.
Adapted from Matt Bondurant’s novel The Wettest County In The World, Lawless is a Prohibition-era thriller that pulls few punches in its depiction of the violence meted out by law-makers and law-breakers.
Hardy plays Forrest Bondurant, and his brothers Howard (Jason Clarke) and Jack (LaBeouf) bootleg booze in the mountains of Franklin County.
They run a successful bar and eke out a living by trading moonshine, made at secret distilleries maintained by Jack’s disabled pal Cricket (Dane DeHaan).
The siblings’ business empire threatens to crumble to its foundations when sadistic Special Deputy Charley Rakes (Guy Pearce) arrives from Chicago on a mission to shut down the distilleries at the behest of District Attorney Mason Wardell (Tim Tolin).
As young love blossoms between Jack and preacher’s daughter Bertha Minnix (Mia Wasikowska), Rakes sets about dismantling the brothers’ operation, targeting dancer-turned-waitress Maggie (Jessica Chastain).
Yet, for all its dramatic simplicity, John Hillcoat’s film packs a hefty punch.
Hardy delivers a brooding performance, maintaining his stoic hard-man image
around Chastain’s emotionally battered love interest.But it’s Pearce who scorches every mud and blood-smeared frame as an obsessive-compulsive bully hiding behind his badge.
Also available to buy on DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £19.99
Source: Daily Record
