Live by Night

Starring: Ben Affleck, Elle Fanning, Remo Girone, Brendan Gleeson, Zoe Saldana, Chris Cooper, Robert Glenister, Matthew Maher, Chris Messina, Sienna Miller, Titus Welliver, Clark Gregg, Anthony Michael Hall
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A Boston gangster (Ben Affleck) moves to Florida, where he sets up a business taking advantage of Prohibition.

Review:

Tim: After shocking the world (and me) with his directorial skill, we get the fourth film Ben Affleck has directed- Live by Night. Now, by my account, Affleck's first three films- Gone Baby Gone, The Town, and Argo were all great films. Do you know how rare that this? For the first three films a director makes to be great? Besides Rian Johnson, I can't think of anyone else who has done that. Unfortunately, Affleck's streak ends at three. This is a decent movie, but it's clearly the worst film he has directed.

The biggest problem with Live by Night is that it's just kind of a boring movie. None of the characters are especially interesting. We don't really make any emotional connections with them. The story is fairly lackluster. A bunch of gangsters do gangster things. It's nothing we haven't seen dozens and dozens of times before. When you add boring characters and a boring story, it makes this 2 hour 9 minute movie feel even longer. Affleck is talented enough for this film to never actually be bad- the story moves, has some scope to it, has a few unexpected twists and turns. The problem is that everything just seems so lackluster, so generic. The story never grabs you, it never makes you sit up and take notice. The film kind of plods along. Sure, there's good moments here and there, but there's nothing special about this film at all. It's ultimately far too forgettable.

Affleck is decent enough in the lead role, but we're not given a reason to really care about him. Maybe he's slightly less bad than the other bad guys, but that's not a reason to care about him. He had his heart broken, he has a tough relationship with his father, he has friends- the movie throws a lot at us, but none of it sticks. He's ultimately too generic a character and Affleck doesn't elevate the material with his performance. Zoe Saldana was decent, but again, she's saddled with a not fully formed character. Elle Fanning continues to showcase her surprising lack of actual talent. She does have a few decent moments, but she continues to be one of the most wooden, blah actresses who continues to get work. I loved seeing Brendan Gleeson here, but he doesn't get to do much. Chris Cooper is one of the exceptions- his supporting role is meaty enough for him to deliver a truly strong, memorable performance. He's probably the best part of the cast. I liked seeing Clark Gregg and Anthony Michael Hall, but they have so little to do. The cast as a whole just doesn't completely gel and there's not enough good performances.

If you like period gangster movies, it's certainly worth seeing Live by Night. It's not a bad movie at all. The problem is that it's never more than decent. When you look at Affleck's first three films, you just wonder what happened here. Was the story and the cast too big for him? Did he lose sight of what made his earlier films so great? Was this just an ordinary misstep and he'll learn lessons from it and come back to directing great movies? It's interesting, because no matter the director- even the best of the best- they always have missteps, they always have failures. That's part of the movie business. Affleck wasn't going to have a perfect track record. I only hope this was a learning experience, because he's shown he can do a lot better than this.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Town, Gone Baby Gone, Argo