Lawless

Australian director John Hillcoat (The Road) has emerged as a specialist in dark, violent stories that explore family relationships under extreme circumstances. Lawless incorporates the dysfunctional sibling relationships from Hillcoat's excellent but ultraviolent 2005 drama The Proposition, but with considerably more loving -- if unaffectionate -- brothers. And what a trio of brothers Hillcoat has cast: LaBeouf may be the top-billed star, but it's really Hardy's Forrest who's the brains of the Bondurant operation (Jack being the heart and Howard the all-too-eager hands). Since appearing in Inception, Hardy has quickly emerged as one of the most effectively intense actors working today, and he outacts LaBeouf despite saying very little (he grunts more than he speaks, and when he does speak, he's usually slurring a Southern drawl).

The women of the drama -- Mia Wasikowska as Bertha, the beautiful but religious girl Jack fancies, and Jessica Chastain as Maggie, a former city girl with an irresistible attraction to the quietly fierce Forrest -- are fantastic but among several underdeveloped characters. There are too many men and too much going on to give all of the subplots enough time to develop (Gary Oldman pops up in a few memorable scenes, but then, poof, he's gone). Like in The Proposition, Lawless is a movie in which arguments are resolved with guns and fists, where the law can be evil (Pearce is practically perfect as the preening psychopath agent), and your blood and your name are ultimately what define you.