Movie Reaction: Live By Night

Formula: Goodfellas - 13° Latitude

I like living in a world in which Ben Affleck is no longer a punchline. It was rough for a while in those Jersey Girl/Gigli years. He came out of it well, beginning with the often forgotten Hollywoodland and breaking into directing with Gone Baby Gone. It took until Argo for people* to really come around. He was great in Gone Girl. No one remembers Runner Runner enough to ridicule it. And, his Batman wasn't the problem with that movie. Now we all love Ben Affleck again (or at least tolerate him). So, it is with no pleasure that I say that Live By Night is his first miss as a director.

*"People" does not include the directors branch of the Oscars, apparently.

Live By Night is a Dennis Lehane adaptation. Between his other adaptations (The Drop, Gone Baby Gone, Shutter Island) and his work writing for The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, I'm accidentally a fan of his. It's funny that his work has also been tied to Martin Scorsese projects, because Live By Night is Ben Affleck's attempt to make a Martin Scorsese movie*. Like Gangster Squad or Lawless, he tries to find a new "spin" on it by relocating, but it's unavoidably Scorsese (Goodfellas or Casino, even some Gangs of New York).

*I'll admit, seeing Silence 12 hours earlier certainly highlighted the comparison.

Let's get to the movie itself though. It's set in the 1930s and follows a gangster crook named Joe Coughlin. He's a WWI veteran who takes to a life of crime up in Boston for a decade. He has an unfortunate run in with a local crime boss, Albert White, that puts him in jail for three years. Once he gets out of jail, he follows White down to his new Rum-smuggling operation in Tampa with his sights set on revenge. There, he falls in love with Graciela (Zoe Saldana) and tries to build a casino and get gambling legalized. He gets some opposition from the police chief (Chris Cooper) and the chief's born-again daughter (Elle Fanning). Oh, and there's the KKK problem to deal with. And, did I forget to mention his lost love who died in Boston? How about the mob wars between the Italians and Irish?

There is a lot going on and not enough of a focus on events or a character for it to work. The story lacks a central conflict. By the time Joe gets to square off against Albert White, it's been half the movie since he was last seen as a threat. The story with the police chief's daughter, which looked like it was going in some interesting places, ends abruptly except for one excessive call-back at the end. Joe Coughlin is the connective tissue who is supposed to hold it all together. And that can work. Forrest Gump has too much story too but a consistent lead who sells it. Joe Coughlin isn't a consistent character. He starts off claiming to have an aversion to killing people. That obviously doesn't last, and he has minimal emotional conflict about it. The film starts off with Sienna Miller being the love of his life. Then it decides Zoe Saldana is. Then Miller comes back to haunt him. Then his love of Saldana is supposed to carry the biggest gut punch in the movie. Despite a lot of narration, I don't feel like Joe is doing anything more than telling me a story that he would tell anyone and without any real insight.

The performances in the film are a mixed bag. Affleck isn't giving an interesting performance, although it's technically a proficient one. Brendan Gleeson has some good moments as Affleck's police commander father. Elle Fanning is quite good. She has a breakfast discussion with Affleck and goes toe to toe with him, fleshing out her character more in a single scene than Affleck manages throughout the entire movie. Chris Messina has a not-quite-comedic relief role as Affleck's right-hand man and handles it with ease. Others, like Chris Cooper and Matthew Maher (as Cooper's racist brother-in-law) play everything too big. Neither of Affleck's love interests (Miller or Saldana) have characters. They are more like symbols.

I really enjoyed how the film recreates 1930s Tampa. It's not a setting I've seen used before. It can't help itself from some landscape porn (I sure hope you like overhead shots of rivers and roads). However, that's more forgivable when it's an area like this that I haven't seen a hundred times before (I'm looking at you, True Detective Season 2 L.A. highways shots). Everyone involved seemed to treat the Boston scenes like the vegetables you have to eat before getting to desert (i.e. Tampa). It makes me wish they could've found a way to cut out Boston entirely.

Live By Night isn't an awful movie. Forgettable is a better word. It lacks the tight story or strong central character to pull off the years-spanning structure. It looks good, but not enough to make up the inconsistent focus. The world is filled nicely, although not with enough interesting characters. Nothing egregious enough to quell my excitement for what Ben Affleck does next. 

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend