Live by Night
Starring: Ben Affleck, Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Elle Fanning
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Rated: R
Gangsters, prohibition, love triangles, and fedoras...these are the ingredients of Ben Affleck's latest directorial effort Live By Night. The film is certainly ambitious aiming to be the next mafia epic, but does it have the ties to pull it off?
Live by Night chronicles Joe Coughlin's (Ben Affleck) rise in organized crime from a thief in Boston to the most powerful gangster in Florida. But no one ever said being a gangster was easy....even for Batman.
Here's the deal, I'm usually a fan of Ben Affleck's directorial efforts. Argo andThe Town are great films. I expected something similar with Live by Night. Instead, it feels very uneven. There are great moments that are genuinely engaging. Then there are moments that are ridiculously dull that could easily be taken out of the film. My biggest issue with Live By Night is the extensive amount of characters that lead to subplots that never feel cohesive. I understand that a film about a gangster needs a lot of characters. However, many of these characters just wander in and out as the plot demands and several feel like their story lines aren't even necessary.
Ben Affleck plays Joe Coughlin as a man who doesn't wish to be a gangster, but gets sucked in after a series of difficult situations. Affleck plays the character well. Since Coughlin is the central focus of the film, he is definitely the most well developed and compelling character. (This isn't a big surprise considering Affleck wrote the screenplay and directed the movie.)
Big surprise, there is a love triangle in Live By Night. Sienna Miller plays Emma Gould, the woman Joe loves in Boston. She's the girlfriend of another gangster, making the situation quite complicated. Zoe Saldana plays Graciela, a woman in Florida who is quick to capture Joe's attention. She is kind and understanding, despite his shady business dealings. The film captures an interesting look at these two different women and how they affect Joe and his business.
Chris Cooper plays Chief Figgis, a local Sherriff. Elle Fanning plays Loretta, Figgiss' daughter. She is an aspiring actress turned evangelist. This storyline was probably my biggest issue with the movie. Cooper and Fanning probably have the best performances in the film, but the characterization is absolutely awful. They start out as interesting, well-developed characters and end up as one-dimensional plot pieces to serve Joe's story in the end. Loretta and Figgis do things that make zero sense. In the end, their whole storyline feels like a rip off. These once interesting characters feel like they could have been taken out of the movie. I would go into more detail and trust me, I wish I could, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who wants to see this.
I was looking forward to Live by Night, but it didn't deliver. Instead, it feels like such a missed opportunity. This is a movie that has some interesting themes, but misses the mark in terms of good characterization and plot cohesion.
My Rating: 5/10