In allowing us to feel like we’re a part of its West Virginia group of grifters, director Steven Soderbergh makes “Logan Lucky” a racecar-robbery flick that gets it right. By not saturating its offbeat characters from Boone County with every hillbilly or redneck reference you can name, we identify with these small-town folk as they embark on a big-town undertaking and allow us root for the underdog.
And it’s in its roots, through family and location, that make us care about “Logan Lucky’s” protagonists: Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), once Boone County’s star high-school quarterback, is now a down-on-his-luck construction worker who gets laid-off from a job working in Charlotte, NC when his employers find he didn’t report a pre-existing leg injury-forget that the injury doesn’t impede his performance, his employers can’t handle the insurance risk. Jimmy seeks solace at the Duck Tape bar back home in Boone County where his brother, Clyde (Adam Driver) slings the drinks and where the Logan brothers soon meet an arrogant NASCAR sponsor named Max (Seth MacFarlane).
In Boone County, local legend has it that the Logan family is cursed. Not only do we see this in Jimmy’s recent job termination, but Clyde has lost his left arm below the elbow due to his military service in Iraq. So, when Max makes Clyde undergo the laborious task of concocting a “killer Stoli martini” in front of Jimmy (Clyde removing his prosthetic arm to do so), sparks literally fly: the Logan boys band together to send Max away in a fiery parking lot fracas.
This encounter with Max also sparks an idea in Jimmy. Having long thought of robbing a bank to remedy his financial woes (as evidenced by a “robbing to-do list” on his fridge), Jimmy runs a heist idea over with Clyde. With Jimmy’s young daughter about to move over state lines with his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) and with the prospect of losing that connection due to lack of money, luck may have just intervened to give Jimmy a chance. Max’s NASCAR connection may have been an omen: Jimmy was laid-off from tunneling beneath the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway to prevent sinkholes. Having seen how the NASCAR money spent by race attendees is funneled into a vault through pressurized tubes from the track and Jimmy’s first-hand knowledge of how the tunnel system gives access to the tubes, what have the Logan boys got to lose? Recruiting their sister, Mellie (Riley Keough), a no-nonsense hairdresser who drives stick better than the Speedway racers and finding their demolition expert in an incarcerated high-wire aptly named Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), what could go wrong (once they break Bang out of jail, that is)? Luck may have intervened for Jimmy Logan, but whether it’s good luck or repeated Logan bad luck remains to be seen.
On its surface, “Logan Lucky” is ripe for ridicule and easily could have fallen into shtick: two bumpkin brothers and a sister from Boone County going on a heist to rob NASCAR, the heart of hillbilly heaven, sounds a lot like someone watched an episode of “The Dukes of Hazzard” before “Ocean’s 11” came on. But Soderbergh, who directed 2001’s “Ocean’s 11” and is aided by a slick script from Rebecca Blunt, makes us care through concentrating on characters and subtly endearing them to us with their offbeat quirks, humor, and heart. In a story that’s way too familiar, particularly if you’ve seen the Coen Brothers’ 2004 remake of “The Ladykillers” starring Tom Hanks that matches “Logan Lucky” almost exactly in tone, characters and story (the Ladykillers’ motley crew uses tunnels to break into a Mississippi riverboat casino’s underground counting room), “Logan Lucky” smartly invests in its characters to peak our interest and understand their plight.
With a good array of colorful supporting characters featuring faces you haven’t seen in a while (including Hilary Swank doing her best Tommy Lee Jones impression as a federal agent), the small-town humor shines- one example: Dwight Yoakam as a prison warden negotiating with prisoner demands over “Game of Throne” books that were never written, though the prisoners believe they were having overheard the plotlines in HBO’s continuing saga. But it’s Daniel Craig who has the most fun playing against type as Joe Bang- wild-eyed and wily, it’s fun seeing Craig have fun.
With a third act that seems to stretch time like a caution flag waving drivers to slow during the race, don’t despair- there’s a clever payoff. While its story may tread familiar ground and its West Virginia setting could have made for a rocky exercise, “Logan Lucky” cares enough about its characters to wear those rough edges smooth.