It's easy to forgive Ben Affleck, who plays a Prohibition-era gangster in Live by Night, for wanting too much. After all, the Dennis Lehane novel that provides source material for the actor-screenwriter-director's latest movie is loaded with:
• intrigue
Live by Night
81 Cast: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Remo Girone, Brendan Gleeson, Robert Glenister, Matthew Maher, Chris Messina, Sienna Miller, Miguel J. Pimentel, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Titus Welliver, Clark Gregg, Max Casella, Anthony Michael Hall
Director: Ben Affleck
Rating: R, for strong violence, language throughout, and some sexuality/nudity
Running time: 2 hours, 8 minutes
• religious conflict
• danger
• forbidden love
• snappy banter
• ethnic tension
• breathtaking locales
• engrossing characters
• jolting plot twists
• catchy Cuban music
• and cool 1920s cars
With all that temptingly sordid content -- all that potential and visual and sonic delight -- Affleck must have thought his biggest challenge would be cramming it into a feature with reasonably running time. And yet.
Affleck winds up shortchanging himself in the process, beginning with the decision to cast himself in the leading (but actually least interesting) role of "principled" armed robber Joe Coughlin, a criminal who works alone taking down high stakes poker games and banks instead of taking orders from a crime boss. Joe, a Great War vet who may be suffering from shell shock, decided that after he mustered out he'd never take orders from anyone again.
He flouts his disdain for authority by carrying on a public affair with Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), who is also the mistress of Irish rum runner Albert White (Robert Glenister).
It's no wonder Joe's father Thomas (Brendan Gleeson) hasn't much patience with his son's choice in careers or friends. Especially since Thomas is a high-ranking Boston police superintendent.
Joe also manages to catch the attention of White's Italian nemesis, Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone), who has an Old World patrician manner and a cutthroat's heart. Needless to say, Joe is lucky to only wind up in prison after the film's first act.
When he leaves the Big House, he and his trusted cohort Dion (Chris Messina) move to Tampa to take over Pescatore's troubled rum operation. Taking the story south gives Live by Night a shot of adrenaline and energy it has previously been lacking. By setting mob tale in a locale that hasn't been played to death like New York or Chicago, the gunplay and back-stabbing have a fresh context.
With the city's unique cultural makeup and access to raw materials, Joe and Dion team up with a local Cuban don (Miguel J. Pimentel) and his clever sister Graciela (Zoe Saldana) to keep the rest of the country happily drunk.
As for the local police chief (Chris Cooper), he doesn't seem to care as long as Joe and company keep their dirty business away from Tampa proper. In addition to dealing with the fact that the city's ethnic factions only tolerate each other in the name of illicit cash, Joe also has to deal with the fact that, as a lapsed Catholic, he's as unwanted to some of the local population as his romance with Graciela. It doesn't help when teen evangelist (Elle Fanning) takes exception to his business ventures.
Affleck might have done better to exclude a few ingredients from this Chipotle burrito of a film. No sparks fly between Affleck and either of his paramours. Miller and Saldana have well-crafted characters and do a lot more than simply look breathtakingly lovely in flapper gowns.
Nonetheless, it's hard to care if Joe finds true love. We're supposed to believe that Joe would die for either woman, but nothing in Affleck's manner indicates Joe has the desire or the capacity for such a sacrifice.
The film is also saddled with a few endings upon endings that simply drag on long after the tale's narrative has rested. Affleck's voice-over also drones on about things that would be more fun to watch than hear about. It's more gripping to see Joe take over the rum trade than to hear him talk about it the way a financial reporter recites a stock market trend.
Thankfully, Affleck has retained his ability to capitalize on property destruction like he demonstrated in The Town. Car chases have the added benefit of the unreliability of '20s vehicles -- a clean getaway is hardly guaranteed. But the vehicles still crash and explode.
Like those cars, Live by Night manages to get viewers to their destination, but it's a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.
MovieStyle on 01/13/2017