Live By Night review: Can Ben Affleck follow-up the Oscar success that he enjoyed with Argo with this ambitious period gangster epic?
Read our Live By Night review below.
Live By Night is Ben Affleck‘s fourth film as director after cutting his teeth with his debut feature, the impressive Gone Baby Gone, followed by the slightly superior The Town ,and then the Oscar-winning Argo. One might say that he’s on a cinematic roll, at least behind the camera, so it’s no surprise that he has aimed high for his latest, the period gangster epic Live By Night.
The film opens in 1920s Boston where Affleck’s character, local hoodlum Joe Coughlin is introduced as the son of the local chief of police (and WWI veteran) Thomas Coughlin, played by Brendan Gleeson. Joe is carrying out petty crimes to finance his lifestyle, gradually moving up the crime food chain. The circles in which he moves has seen him meet and fall head over heels in love with gangster’s moll Emma Gould (Sienna Miller). The two plan a getaway to the bright lights of California, but when Irish mob boss Albert White (Robert Glenister) gets wind of Joe’s tryst with his bit on the side, an end is soon put to their hasty travel plans. After a series of incidents affecting those around him, Joe’s destiny sees him take to the south, specifically Tampa, Florida where he oversees the illegal rum business for White’s rival, Italian gangster Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). There he attracts the attention and soon falls for Cuban Graciella Suarez (Zoe Saldana), which not only causes more friction between him and locals, but is the catalyst for changing the course of Joe’s life forever.
Live By Night review
Live By Night starts off promising enough with the first half hour of the film taking place in Affleck’s native Boston. The opening scenes are impressive, both in look, construction and execution – Joe Coughlin’s introduction to the audience through a poker game heist masterfully directed by the talented filmmaker. The scenes involving Affleck with his on-screen father Brendan Gleeson, and well as the pivotal meeting with Glenister’s Albert White are well-written and show promise of a superb period mob story, but it’s all downhill from there on in as the action shifts from the streets of Boston to the sun-drenched vistas of mid-western Florida.
We’ll focus on the more positive stuff before we deconstruct some of the film’s big issues though. The cinematography by Robert Richardson, veteran of films like Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and Hugo is sensational, particularly as the action does make that shift in location a third in. Affeck’s writing, the script taken from Dennis Lehane’s source novel is fairly decent, and in places contains many lines of witty dialogue, so reminiscent of his 1990s Oscar-winner Good Will Hunting. Then there’s the production design; the film on staged on a grand scale, complete with car chases involving 1920s automobiles and what seem to be huge sets for the actors to execute the equally ambitious story upon.
The big problem is that there is so much going on in the film that nothing seems to quite hit the mark. When you look at it as a whole you have a fairly decent screenplay with nice dialogue, great sets, a glossy, well-polished look; plenty of gifted actors (Chris Cooper and Elle Fanning, above, particular stand-outs) doing their thing making the most of the material, and enough going on to hold you attention throughout – but by the time you reach the end, one can’t help but feel a little empty. It lacks something that I can’t quite put my finger, but it’s not one specific thing, it is a variety of elements that don’t manage to come together. There are so many sub-plots squeezed into a two hours that I almost felt that the film could have benefitted from an extra 30 minutes or so as certain characters needed more screen time and more development.
I like Affleck, both as an actor and even more as a director. His talent is unquestioned, but unlike his previous efforts Live By Night falls way short of the mark. That’s not to say that this is a bad movie – it’s far from it. It is actually relatively enjoyable, but with so much good word of mouth prior to release – Oscar talk was baited – and the near-flawless track record of Affleck the director, it fell way short of expectation, which is a real shame as I really, really wanted to love it.
It wants to be a glorious gangster epic, but instead turns out to be a just a fairly decent dip into a world that will be a distant memory soon not long after the credits roll.
Live By Night review by Paul Heath, January 2017.
Live By Night is released in UK cinemas on Friday 13th January 2017.
