By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Chris Messina, Brendan Gleeson, Remo Girone, Robert Glenister, Sienna Miller, Zoe Saldana, Max Casella and Chris Cooper.
Rating: Average.
Two time Academy Award Winner, Ben Affleck, is back with his fourth film as a director and writer and second as a producer with “Live By Night” and in a certain way I was pleased with the result.
Based in the novel by Dennis Lehane, “Live by Night” takes place in Boston during the Prohibition Era time tells the story of Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) a young Bostonian who works for Albert White (Robert Glenister) leader of the Irish Mob and at the same time he has an affair with his boss girlfriend Emma Gould (Sienna Miller).
One day, Joe is betrayed by Emma and White and his men beat up Joe which leads him to the hospital and he is found guilty for the murder of three police officers.
Eventually Joe will get out of prison and he swears revenge against Albert White, who is now in Florida controlling the liquor business. This time Joe will join the Italian Mob who also want to control the already mentioned business and he will recruit his partner and friend Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina) and together they will take on Albert White and the Irish Mob.
One of the things that I liked of “Live by Night” was the story. Ben Affleck is a fantastic storyteller and he knew to tell a story during the prohibition era in Boston, where Affleck grew up.
“Live By Night” is the second movie that Affleck directs that is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane. I do think it´s a good mob story, but unfortunately the movie became to predictable. There are elements specially in the third act of the film that were not convincing and didn´t make any sense like the ending that was full with clichés and it should have ended in another way.
The change of Elle Fanning´s character was another flaw of this film since I didn´t buy the change she dad . I understand and justify the character but I didn´t think that Elle Fanning was the correct choice for portraying that character.
Despite of it´s flaws, the movie deliver and entertains. Aflleck knew how to get the best of his actors who most of them give very good performances especially Sienna Miller and Chris Messina.
he cinematography by Academy Award Winner Robert Richardson who has worked with directors like Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino was great and the camera angles and movements were very well used. He knew how to capture through the lens the emotions of the characters making them believable.
The Third Act Climax of the film was one of the best parts of the film and it was a fantastic action sequence and was very well choreographed. I do consider this sequence a kind of homage to movie like “The Untouchables” by Brian De Palma and by moments both “The Godfather Part I and II” by Francis Ford Coppola and “Goodfellas” by Martin Scorsese.
I´ve mentioned in the past that Ben Affleck is a great director and he proved again, although I have to mention that this has been his weakest film and I´m sure he will learn from this one and I hope his next movie is even better.
Even though “Live by Night” is far from the quality of hisprevious films, the action sequences of this film were very well made and the result of the product was satisfying.
Affleck´s screenplay does work but it could have been better if the flaws that I mentioned before would have been fixed.
I give “Live by Night” a slight recommendation since it could have been a better picture maintained its´s premise: entertainment and entertain.
I invite you to leave your comments at emilio.frenk@gmail.com or my twitter @FrenkEmilio.