Had difficulty making a decision on this one. On one hand, Lawless delivers a good number of terrific performances, most prominently from Hardy and Pearce (amazing how Hardy has suddenly exploded into our lives during the past two years), and the brutal violence is captivating - the same feelings I experienced on previous Hillcoat works, The Proposition and The Road. On the other hand, there isn't much of a take-home message, possibly because character development is not strong enough (Wasikowska's role is a complete throwaway), and sympathizing with the heroes takes an effort. I feel bad giving this a So-so.
Mo says:
I agree that for this movie it's hard to give "so so "(and it seems top critics had hard time too!)
ReplyDeleteI liked the movie because a bunch of gifted casting appear all together and as u said with expected good performances.I missed such an Capone- type or gangster -style of movie or Godfather-theme for a while and there was some nice quote like : “It is not the violence that sets men apart. It is the distance that he is prepared to go.......OR ....”We're survivors. We control the fear. And without the fear, we are all as good as dead...OR ...."I'm not talking about the money , I'm talking about principles ".
The truth-based story and photographs of 3 real brother at the end was cool (like the Bonnie & Clyde ).
But the movie has some weak points too. Some weakness was like the relation between Gary Oldman and Brothers was lost in the middle. It wasn't clarified why he was in the plot and I expected him to be defined somewhere ,specially when his arrival to the scene and that huge violence drew our attention .
Also , the main theme that the brothers , especially Tom Hardy were indestructible and immortal was just a local myth and to me it doesn't make sense. I felt at the end, surviving of all brothers from those status shootings and lethal bullets sounds a little funny and hard to believe . (khalibandy )
Anyway, as u mentioned well,when it comes to Tom Hardy , no hesitate to watch him...regardless of other facts , he was the heart and sole of the film indeed !
Trivia :*Tom Hardy's character was originally supposed to be slimmer but Hardy had to bulk up for the movie The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
* The film's screenwriter and composer appears as a gangster shot by Floyd Banner (G.Oldman)early in the film.!