( EW.com ) -- In the 1920s-set gangland drama `` Lawless , '' Tom Hardy sheds the metal face-hugger he wore in `` The Dark Knight Rises '' and shows you what an eloquent actor he can be . He plays Forrest Bondurant , the leader of a family of bootleggers in the Virginia hills . Several years into Prohibition , Forrest learns that his status as a lone-wolf operator is threatened . An effete psycho played by a wildly grotesque Guy Pearce leads a band of government flunkies in bed with the Mob -- and they all want in on the action . To Forrest , though , running his moonshine racket as an independent business is his right as an American . Taking this stand means he 's going to face an army of goons , and Hardy , speaking in low , flat , almost musically macho tones , has the bruiser charisma of a caveman Kevin Costner . It 's not the money he 's clinging to -- it 's the freedom . Sage Stallone died from heart condition . `` Lawless '' is really a Western , with Forrest guarding his turf as fearlessly as Gary Cooper in `` High Noon '' or Warren Beatty in `` McCabe & Mrs . Miller . '' The film , written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat , is a sturdy piece of traditionalism with outrÃ© touches ( like Mark Lanegan 's cover of the Velvet Underground 's `` White Light/White Heat , '' the perfect anachronistic filigree for a story about white lightning ) . 'Possession ' aims to seize box office crown . But `` Lawless '' still felt remote to me . The surrounding drama ( Shia LaBeouf as the Bondurant kid brother , a greenhorn who learns to fight like a man ; Jessica Chastain as a barkeep who swoons for Forrest ) is stuffy and derivative . Hardy 's presence is compelling , but the film comes fully alive only when it turns bloody . At those moments , though , it has the kick of a mule . Grade : B . See the full article at EW.com . CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved .
Tom Hardy is eloquent in the 1920s-set gangland drama `` Lawless '' The film , written by Nick Cave and directed by John Hillcoat , is a sturdy piece of traditionalism . It has been described as'an epic tale about two brothers who are sent to prison for murder but escape from their captors with help from a mysterious stranger named Billy ( Hardy ). "