The new theatrical trailer for Lawless (formerly The Wettest County) has surfaced, and I can’t figure out if it’s worth getting excited over this prohibition drama or if it’s just misguided awards bait. Certainly, this is a prestige film if one considers that John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition) is in the director’s seat. Further, the cast includes Tom Hardy and Shia LeBeouf — with the latter finally branching out from ridiculous robot movies (Transformers, obviously) and franchise reboots (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps) — as two of the Bondurant brothers, who are based upon the real-life trio that bootlegged moonshine and encountered much resistance from the hand of the law. The cast also boasts current awards-circuit favorites such as Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska as token love interests while Gary Oldman makes a menacing appearance as a gangster and Guy Pearce plays a lawman. Not too shabby, right?

Here’s the film’s official synopsis with the trailer below:

Gangster meets Western in Lawless, the true story of the freewheelin’ Bondurant brothers, bootlegging siblings taking the law into their own hands. This is the story of the rural hard-men that created the big city gangsters. Brazen and fearless, these young rebel brothers helped build the American Dream in this exuberant tale of what was to become crime’s first major gold rush. The youngest brother, Jack(Shia LaBeouf), fancies himself the next Al Capone; he dreams of sharp suits, guns, girls and fast cars, no matter the cost.

Ambitious and impulsive, he takes the family’s small-scale moonshining operation to the big leagues, to impress the gorgeous but off-limits Amish girl, Bertha (Mia Wasikowska). The middle brother, Howard (Jason Clarke), is the brawling muscle — loyal but reckless — never one to turn down a taste of white lightning. And eldest brother, Forrest (Tom Hardy), reluctantly accepts the changing times with grace and grit, leading the family with strength of character and silent determination against the beginnings of corporate greed.

An enigmatic and stunning Maggie (Jessica Chastain) comes to town with a hidden past, igniting his passion and almost saving him in the process. As the Bondurants’ legend grows, so too does the danger, and it’s not long before the brothers must face the consequences of their transgressions, or rewrite the myth and the law themselves.

[From Weinstein Co.]

Eh. I just can’t see Shia as a serious actor anymore after witnessing him shout “Optimus!” on a repeated basis. He’s going to have to earn some audience respect back, and maybe this movie will do that, but the trailer doesn’t quite do the job. As for the rest of the ensemble cast, they all seem to handle their roles well even though the trailer seems to push for momentum through an overbearing score and obvious title cards. Maybe this is another Weinstein disaster in the making, but I hope not. Such a largely wonderful cast would be a terrible thing to waste.

Photos courtesy of YouTube and AllMoviePhoto