Live by Night (2017) Review!!!

Synopsis – A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.

My Take – Despite being in the industry for more than two decades, Director-Writer-Producer-Actor Ben Affleck unfortunately still remains one of the most underrated and harshly criticized people of the film industry, whether that is his acting, writing or directing. However, when he stepped into the director’s chair with ‘Gone Baby Gone’, he showed the world that he was one hell of a filmmaker that had a strong passion for cinema and how it’s made. ‘The Town’ was also a gritty crime caper that was well shot with excellent performances, which paved the way for Affleck to twin the Oscar for his best directed film to date – ‘Argo’ . When it was announced that his 4^th directorial venture was going to be a prohibition era gangster film with similarities to ‘Goodfellas’ and HBO‘s ‘Boardwalk Empire’, I was extremely excited, because Affleck had not led me astray with his films that he’s directed so far. Yet, I was a little dismayed when the film finally released after numerous delays to mixed to negative response, but being a fan, there was no way I wasn’t going to see this for myself. This film has a great cast, a brilliant director and is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (whose earlier books “Gone, Baby, Gone”, “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island” also made it to the big screen). Surely all the pieces for a great gangster film are in place? Unfortunately, Ben Affleck‘s new film could best be described as “sprawling”. In both directing and writing the screenplay, Affleck has aimed for a “Godfather” style gangster epic and missed: not missed by a country mile, but missed nonetheless. It’s a shame I really wanted to like this as the film had great potential but the film turned out to be a squandered, uninvolved, overstuffed, and incredibly disappointing experience. The story follows Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck), the son of a Boston police captain (Brendan Gleeson) and a veteran of World War I, an experience which definitively shaped Joe’s outlook on life. He returns from the war disillusioned and with no respect for rules or authority. Joe embarks on a life of crime, but is content with an armed robbery here and there and doesn’t want to become a murderous monster like rival Boston crime bosses Albert White (Robert Glenister) and Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone). Unwisely, Joe is involved in an affair with White’s girlfriend, Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), which makes Joe a pawn in the contest of wills between the two gangsters. With help from his friend and partner, Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina), Joe robs a bank so he can get enough money to run to California with Emma. When the robbery goes wrong, Joe ends up in prison for his crimes. After doing his time, Joe reunites with Dion and goes to work for Pescatore, who puts Joe in charge of his rum-running activities in Florida. That’s where Joe meets and falls in love with a fiery Cuban woman named Garciela Corrales (Zoe Saldana) who is also the sister of a Cuban gangster. Garciela wonders aloud if Joe is tough enough to succeed on the path that he has chosen.

Joe rises to the challenge as he has to battle the local Ku Klux Klan (embodied by Matthew Maher and Anthony Michael Hall) for business and personal reasons, but also shows his underlying humanity as he helps free a young woman named Loretta (Elle Fanning), the daughter of local Sheriff Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper), from being exploited while trying to become an actress in L.A. Joe has to confront a new set of challenges when Loretta emerges from her personal turmoil as a popular revivalist and preaches loudly about the evils of gambling, just as Joe is building a casino. Naturally, events head toward a bloody and violent showdown. As an addition to the gangster genre, the film certainly has uniqueness to it. Thanks to the Florida setting, there is a notable feel and style to the film. Whereas the typical gangster film might be set in dark and claustrophobic city locations such as Chicago, New York, Detroit or Boston, the story here is told against sun-soaked, colorful and expansive scenery which provides a sense of heat so stifling that it can almost be felt coming through the screen. The film also boasts some sumptuous scenery, particularly of the Florida glades, whilst the early 20th Century town-life of Ybor City really comes to life thanks to excellent design, costumes and vibrant music. The finale was a letdown for me, I was expecting more, like a shoot-out similar to The Untouchables. It does in fact, whilst being fairly original, shares some attractive characteristics from other stories like Scarface, and I couldn’t help but think there’s a strong Count of Monte Cristo feel to the story. It was interesting, too, to see a gangster film based during the prohibition era which told its story from the perspective of the suppliers of the alcohol, rather than the city-based recipients. Yet, for all its good intentions, has all the focus of a barrel of buckshot. It sprays its themes in every which way desperately hoping the audience will connect the dots with extended periods of voice over narration. When we’re not forced to listen to Affleck’s gravelly voiced monologues, we get to experience the actor himself, who uneasily takes the limelight by wearing his wardrobe with the color symbolism of a mood ring. The film feels like three great seasons of a decent cable show that’s been chopped up and awkwardly pieced together to make a highlights reel. Just like the skeleton of the casino that’s being built in this film, everywhere you look there are hints of grandeur. Unfortunately that grandeur never comes and all you’re left with is a great looking structure that’s quickly sinking in a swamp. Not saying it’s a terrible film, because it isn’t, it’s just that I found the character of Coughlin, much like the last half of the film, very underwhelming. I found the first act of the film to be very compelling. The film hooked me in straight away but unfortunately it quickly started to lose its footing as the second act began. The moment this film leaves Boston and enters its second act in Florida I started to become less engaged. The film kept trying to bash you over the head with the idea that the protagonist, Joe, was becoming more and more of a cold-hearted gangster. However I really did not feel like this character development was actually taking place on the screen. Instead other characters would just talk about how Joe was “once a good man.”

This brings me to a bigger problem that I had with the film which is that I only ever felt like a spectator. I do not feel as though Ben Affleck ever truly tried to involve the audience in what Joe was experiencing or trying to accomplish and this led to me feeling very disconnected. Another problem I had with this gangster film was that it felt surprisingly soft and clean and lacking edge. The film is slow, often paying a little too much attention to monotonous details for building the empire. The film tried to build the suspense with their overdone explanations that promised some heart crushing moments only to wrap things up with a monologue from Affleck describing what happened. These mundane, overlapping comments did little for me other than decrease the run time of the film and I was disappointed at the lack of effort for drama. The result for me was a very boring film not only in terms of action, but in emotional suspense as well. If you look at the classics, the storytellers built up tension that climaxed at those gut-wrenching moments as a character was killed. However in this film, they seldom came close to matching that suspense, the only exception being two moments near the end of the film. Compounding this sense of underdevelopment and hastiness is an infuriating lack of any indication of how much time is passing throughout the story. At one point towards the end of the film, Coughlin refers to a girl who died in 1927, and this just highlighted the fact that, aside from references to US Presidents and the end of prohibition, there is nothing to suggest when these events are taking place or indeed how long they are taking. It’s frustratingly poor storytelling, especially when considering the strength and quality of the source material. Combined with Affleck being so prominent in his leading role, his decision as the director to use so many facial close-ups and lingering shots of Coughlin means that this film essentially feels like a self indulgence piece. While I did want more out of this film, there is no denying that Affleck can most certainly stage some breathtaking action sequences. He knows when to get close; he knows what to show and when to show it. This film is no exception to that standard in regards to how everything is shown. Some major highlights of the film include a vicious car chase through a country back road, copious amounts of bloody shootouts and brutal fights throughout yet we feel disengaged by what is going on. We don’t know enough about anyone in the film outside of Joe to be connected to them, let alone feel bad when someone dies. To be quite honest, the film is 129 minutes and has about 100 characters in it, none of which you end up caring about. If there is one thing that I’ve grown to expect going into a Ben Affleck film, it is that I’m bound to be blown away by the cast if all else fails. While the performances in this film are good, some of them even excellent, it really doesn’t translate well when you just don’t care about them. Ironically, in a film that is geared towards male characters and dominated by such, the women in this film give tremendous performances. Elle Fanning, Sienna Miller and Zoe Saldana stand out as three performances that were truly powerhouse even if their screen time collectively added up to maybe thirty minutes all together. Chris Messina is humorous and likable. Brendan Gleeson as Ben’s cop father is almost a cameo, but Matthew Maher puts in a defining performance. Robert Glenister and Remo Girone are menacing. It’s surprising that Ben Affleck‘s portrayal of Coughlin as soulless and emotional-less, always calculating the odds. This makes his character cold, not emotional and that is just not interesting enough to watch. I don’t think he was cruel enough; he wasn’t as menacing and calculating as I might imagine. It’s Chris Cooper that’s steals the show with a strong emotional performance as not-so-corrupt police Chief Figgis. On the whole, ‘Live by Night’ is a surprisingly dull film that looks fantastic but lacks the impact & finesse of Ben Affleck‘s previous efforts.