{"id":6385,"date":"2017-09-24T13:37:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T13:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=6385"},"modified":"2017-09-24T13:37:18","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T13:37:18","slug":"live-by-night","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=6385","title":{"rendered":"Live By Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by\u00a0Allan L. Branson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Live By Night<\/em>, the novel by Dennis Lehane, as the clich\u00e9 goes, \u201ccomes to the big screen,\u201d starring Ben Affleck. It should be noted that a recent Crimeculture movie review of The Accountant<\/em><\/a> also starred Ben Affleck, and while this does not suggest any preference for this actor by this reviewer, he has been racking up a lot of big screen face time since my favorite, The Town<\/em>. What both of the aforementioned movies possessed in terms of pace, this rendering lacks. While the story line is one of a good man who becomes \u201cbad\u201d, it takes a while for us to care. Ben Affleck is rejoined with an ensemble cast: Chris Cooper, previously Affleck\u2019s father in The Town<\/em>, now as Chief Figgis; Brendan Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin, Affleck\u2019s (Joe Coughlin) father and prominent Boston Police Captain; and Zoey Saldana as Graciela, his Cuban love interest.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Mr. Affleck enjoys playing criminal types steeped in Boston\u2019s historic Irish gangster culture because it\u2019s easy. Frankly, I appreciate the change from rote mafia movies. Generally speaking, there are subtle nuanced differences between the two genres. This film takes place in Florida during prohibition, where for Affleck and his partner, strongly portrayed by Chris Messina (as Dion Bartolo), the deadliest competition is the Ku Klux Klan. Affleck, as previous war veteran, convict and newly minted mob boss, has moved their operation to Florida. Underlying tension grows due to Affleck\u2019s character and Joe Coughlin\u2019s interracial romance with Graciela.<\/p>\n

Consider this film a mix of HBO\u2019s now defunct weekly series Boardwalk Empire<\/em> and Brian DePalma\u2019s Scarface<\/em> (1983), which was an updated version of the 1932 film of the same name starring Paul Muni. Live by Night<\/em>, as the song suggests, is \u201cA Long and Winding Road.\u201d While the cast is good there are no standout performances save for the previously mentioned Messina and Elle Fanning as Loretta Figgis, previously led astray but now a person of faith. Sienna Miller perhaps displays the strongest performance as the fatalistic heartbreaker Emma Gould. She in part was the impetus for Joe Coughlin\u2019s brutal beating early on and departure to seemingly greener pastures and warmer weather at the hands of Robert Glenister, cast as the ruthless mobster Albert White.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a book does not translate well into film, since there is simply too much going on. Given the parameters of movie running times, all the aspects of the story cannot be addressed. Suffice it to say that what books are expected to do, films rarely accomplish, and when they do they are lauded. Enjoy it via your favorite streaming service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by\u00a0Allan L. Branson Live By Night, the novel by Dennis Lehane, as the clich\u00e9 goes, \u201ccomes to the big<\/p>\n

Continue readingLive By Night<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":779,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6385"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6389,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6385\/revisions\/6389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}