Live By Night - Movie Voodoo review by Chris Hembury

Live By Night ***Batman goes Gangster

Live By Night is a book adaption picked up original by Warner Brothers to be a Leonardo DiCaprio starring vehicle but he left the acting side staying on as a producer with Ben Affleck eventually coming abroad the project as a Writer, Director and Star. 

In Live By Night we follow Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) WW1 vet turned armed robber in 1920's Boston. The story hits the fast gear before you know it the action is let loose with car chases, shoot outs, sex and danger you feel like your enjoying a great season Finale of Boardwalk Empire. 

The film looks great and frankly with a budget of 65 million you would expect nothing less.

But Joe career as a petty thief is cut short and following a few years in the slammer Joe emerges intent on self interest and becoming a gangster.  

Effectively the first 40 minutes is basically a extended opening sequence as the real story of Live By Night is Joe's arrival in Tampa Florida on behalf of the Italian Mafia to front their business interests. 

Here begins the saga of Joe trying to stay just on the right side of being a evil Gangster as he has to do dark things but Joe reluctance to fully embrace the cold blooded nature of his profession may put him in danger. 

He chooses not to expand into Heroin despite his boss's urges, strikes a mixed race relationship which provokes the KKK and often chooses compromise to killing. Inevitably all his problems may have to be solved by the latter.  

Affleck already has a nice solid track record of Directing after Gone Baby Gone, The Town and most impressively Argo.

So the idea of writing, directing and starring may not be that daunting to him but with Live By Night he has work cut out for him as this is a big scale period epic with his character nearly in every scene over a 129 minute running time. 

The story is engaging but Affleck acts through the plot beats almost on autopilot as ultimately his character is some what forgettable. Affleck's portrayal of gangster Joe Coughlin is by means in the same character league as say Pacino's "Tony Mantana" from Scarface,  Joe Pesci's "Nicky Santoro" from Casino or hell Steve Busemi's "Nucky Thompson" from Boardwalk Empire they are all stand out memorable characters from the crime genre.  

This isn't the case for all the cast with stand out roles from Matthew Maher as the psychotic KKK member and Elle Fanning as the tragic chief's daughter. Both shine, one in menace and the other in tragedy. Sienna Miller & Chris Cooper also hand in competent supporting acting alongside Brendan Gleeson who's talent is at least utilised more here than his mere five minute appearance in Assassin's Creed earlier this year. Shocking waste of talent indeed.  

Where Live By Night some what disappoints is after the riveting paced first 40 minutes (which is pretty much 80% of the film's trailer) it does seem almost like the film drops down a gear and stays there for the majority.  The action is stylised and brutal fitting the genre but without the action evenly dispersed it does at some points feel to drag. 

However the audience is rewarded with a climatic shoot out which despite not being epic is certainly welcome. That pretty much sums up the film really. 

Live by Night is brought to life with a talented cast, production design and genre appreciating director but with a script that doesn't quite hit the nose in many respects
the film falls quite short of being elevated anywhere near the hall of greatness.  

By Chris Hembury