Live by Night

Parental Rating:

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens January 13, 2017

Runs 128 minutes

It's 1926 in Boston and Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is back from war and tired of taking orders. Even though he is the son of the police commissioner (Brendan Gleeson), he comes back an outlaw, not a gangster and he wants to be in charge of his own men. But, when Albert White (Robert Glenister), head of the Irish Mob, approaches him, it is hard to say no. Especially since he and Albert are both dating the same girl - Emma (Sienna Miller). When things go wrong for Joe, he decides to team up with the head of the Italian mob, Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone) to take down Albert. He is sent to Tampa to head up the rum business down there. He takes over and turns a tidy profit for Maso. When old enemies reappear, Joe is forced to take matters into his own hands. Then, he turns his share over to his long-time partner Dion (Chris Messina) and retires with his wife Graciela (Zoe Saldana) and their child. But, things have a way of catching up to you in the end.

This movie was better than I expected but not as good as Gone Baby Gone or The Town. The pacing is a little off. It is action-packed, then it slows way down. Then, the action picks back up again. It feels and sounds just a little off. Maybe it was the accents but sometimes it was hard to hear or understand what was said. I thought Ben did a pretty good job in the lead role. Some critics are saying maybe he should just stick to directing but I thought he was fine. The cast was great. The look and feel of Prohibition era Boston and Tampa was great. There was a nice use of the Black and Cuban communities in Florida. A little different look at the time period anyway. Nothing especially new or innovative to add to the gangster genre but a solid entrant. Worth a look. Go see it.

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