MOVIE REVIEW – Ben Affleck is back again with his gangster movie set in the golden age of the organized mob, playing a young WWI veteran gone criminal. He also wrote the scenario, based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, who also wrote Gone Baby Gone, and directed the movie. Like a mob boss wanting to expand too much, this project seemed to be too ambitious for Affleck.

When I came home from the press screening, I was thinking about what makes a gangster movie like that great instead of just good. The ice-cold, killer regard of Alain Delon in Borsalino, while he burns down a bar or kill people in cold blood? Al Pacino’s great performance in both The Godfather, where from an innocent war veteran he gradually turns into the new “godfather”? Or the same Al Pacino, from a small Cuban immigrant realizes the “American dream with a vengeance”?

A great, unforgettable scene, like in The Untouchables, where Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia shoots every mobster, while he still must protect a pram with a baby, which goes wild down on a stair? Yes, in fact all those ingredients were missing from Live by Night: great acting, great scenes, and a truly interesting scenario. And while Live by Night is a rather good film, unfortunately Ben Affleck also failed on every level to make it truly great.

Director vs. actor

Ben Affleck is a good actor, but missed altogether what makes gangsters interesting. Playing it “stone faced”, barely changing expressions wouldn’t be a bad idea in a different kind of gangster movie, where the hero is an ice-cold killer. The problem with this movie in this regard is that Joe Coughlin is supposed to be a more complex character and Ben Affleck just isn’t the kind of actor who is capable of playing him well enough.

Director Affleck should recognize actor Affleck’s capabilities and perhaps give the main role to someone else, who is capable of playing such a complex role. If we compare Live by Night to The Godfather, morally, narratively, and in terms of character depth, Live by Night is a less compelling production and Affleck’s performance isn’t nearly as nuanced as Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone.

Missing the balance

Besides the mistake of giving himself the main role, Ben Affleck also missed somehow to make his movie truly stand out. Certes, there are excellent scenes: a car chase after a heist gone wrong, a great gunfight in a big house or other powerful scenes, but there is a tonal imbalance within the movie with scenes and parts of the movie which are either too long and boring or rushed and anticlimactic.

Affleck, as a screenwriter could have somewhat concentrate more on parts of the novel which are more captivating. There are interesting themes here, like Coughlin’s fight against the KKK, or Loretta, the drug-addict girl of the local police officer, turned a female “messiah”, but it’s missing screen time to be well-developed.

In the end Live by Night is just a decent gangster movie, failing to become a true classic. Affleck is somehow missing the essence of what makes classic gangsters such a fascinating movie character as a director, actor and screenwriter at the same time. If you truly like the genre, I suggest you go still to see it, but Live by Night will sleep with the fishes in the long term.

-BadSector-