Ben Affleck is a talented actor and director. The downside to this? Ben Affleck knows it. Affleck directs, adapts, produces and stars in “Live by Night,” a story about a Prohibition-era petty thief turned bootlegger whose life is interesting even if he very much isn’t.
With the tagline “Joe was once a good man,” the audience should feel some connection to Joe and his journey from a “good man” to, logically, a bad one. But ultimately, following Joe Coughlin (Affleck) through the trials and tribulations of his life feels wholly unnecessary and pointless.
What happens?
Boston petty thief Coughlin is in love with Irish transplant Emma Gould (Sienna Miller). The problem? Gould is the girlfriend of Irish mobster Albert White (Robert Glenister). Once White discovers their affair, he plans to kill Coughlin and Gould, though Coughlin is instead arrested for the murder of three police officers. When he’s released, Coughlin aligns himself with Italian mobster—and White’s enemy—Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone), who sends Coughlin to Tampa to run his bootlegging business. And that’s only the first half-hour.
Over the next hour and a half, Affleck attempts to open a casino, blackmails a preacher, kills a handful of people, falls in love again and goes to the movies. It all kind of comes together, if just barely.
What’s good?
The cast—an ensemble ranging from Miller to Elle Fanning to Zoe Saldana to Brendan Gleeson—moves the film through its many stages of Coughlin’s life expertly. The supporting actors carry Affleck’s character; they draw out the audience’s emotions in ways Coughlin can’t. And the movie’s also very pretty. If nothing else, see it for the visual effects.
What’s bad?
The film ultimately falls flat in trying to unearth some greater meaning about what it means to be a good or bad person through the lens of Coughlin’s life. It’s too fragmented and confusing to feel like you’ve been able to draw any kind of conclusion, and searching for any greater “why” of the film—as in, why you care or spent over two hours watching this—will leave you coming up empty. With no great emotional draw to Coughlin, other than being told repeatedly that he is a “good man,” the purpose of the film is absent.
Final verdict
If you’re a Ben Affleck crime movie kind of person, you’ll feel right at home in “Live by Night,” and that will be reason enough to sit through it. But if you have no vested interest in either the genre or Affleck himself, you’ll feel a sense of “So what?” at the end.
1.5 stars (out of four)
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
