Film Review – 'Logan Lucky'

A plan to steal fourteen million dollars from Charlotte Motor Speedway on the busiest day of the year is gutsy, but Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is willing to take risks after losing his job and potentially being abandoned by his ex-wife and daughter. With the help of brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), his sister Mellie (Riley Keogh), and incarcerated explosives expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), the planning and conducting of the heist is meticulous.

This movie is fun, fast paced, and original. Steven Soderbergh maintains a tone that is both comic and smart. The dialogue is well written, and there are plenty of laughs. Rebecca Blunt is credited with writing the screenplay, but there were some rumours around the time of cinematic release that this is a pseudonym. Soderbergh is expected to be behind the writing after he has previously used fake names as cinematographer and editor on some of his other films. However, this is merely a theory that hasn’t been proved nor disproved.

The performances are convincing. Tatum and Driver have an on-screen chemistry that appears natural – they are brothers, and we know that they relate to each other on this level. Some of the sidelined narrative threads are interesting and acted well too. Dwight Yoakman is great as the prison warden, someone who wants to maintain the reputation of the jail at all coats. It’s really funny, the level of desperation involved in that subplot. Again the writing is spot on. There is one particular joke about ‘Game of Thrones’ that is the possibly the best of the film.

Having ‘Logan Lucky‘ set in West Virginia means that the actors speak in the provincial accent. From Daniel Craig, this is most unexpected. In a similar way to the accent pulled off by Martin Freeman in the television series ‘Fargo’, the American drawl seems unusual from someone so known for their English roles. Craig is very talented though and commands the attention of the Logans as reflected in the narrative.

The narrative and tone may seem a little too familiar at first. Breaking out of jail to carry out a robbery before sneaking back behind bars unnoticed is all too obvious by now? Well, whilst that may be an immediate problem, it is dealt with through the self-reflexivity. There are also some genuine twists, so, the narrative isn’t all that bad. An altogether funny and well structured piece of storytelling.

‘Logan Lucky‘ is available on DVD and Blu-ray on Boxing Day