Live by Night
16/01/17 Filed in: Cinema
No golf today as it rained all morning, so instead we went to the cinema. Our choice, Live by Night, starring Ben Affleck who also wrote and directed it. We enjoyed it but checking out the reviews when I got home it would appear that we're perhaps in the minority. The Guardian uses one of its recurring descriptions, namely too sanitised. Meanwhile at Rotten Tomatoes neither critics nor audience are overwhelmed. The general consensus seems to be that it is a good story, taken from a good novel, but that it just doesn't quite succeed.
Set in Prohibition Boston, and subsequently in Tampa Florida, Joe Coughlin (Affleck) is a small time 'outlaw', which is what he choses to call himself as distinct from a gangster. Having had his fill of killing, and taking orders, in the First World War, he robs but doesn't kill. Unfortunately the resident 'mobs' don't find his activities acceptable and the head of the 'Irish Gang', Albert White, suggests that he gets rid of his incompetent sidekicks and joins his gang. Things are complicated by the fact that Joe is having a relationship with White's moll, Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), a certain death warrant should White find out. A further complication, or one might say surprise, is that Joe's father, Thomas, is a police captain. The final complication is that Maso Pescatore, the Italian Mafias boss, has discovered the affair between Joe and Emma, and threatens blackmail in an attempt to get Joe to kill White.
Set in Prohibition Boston, and subsequently in Tampa Florida, Joe Coughlin (Affleck) is a small time 'outlaw', which is what he choses to call himself as distinct from a gangster. Having had his fill of killing, and taking orders, in the First World War, he robs but doesn't kill. Unfortunately the resident 'mobs' don't find his activities acceptable and the head of the 'Irish Gang', Albert White, suggests that he gets rid of his incompetent sidekicks and joins his gang. Things are complicated by the fact that Joe is having a relationship with White's moll, Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), a certain death warrant should White find out. A further complication, or one might say surprise, is that Joe's father, Thomas, is a police captain. The final complication is that Maso Pescatore, the Italian Mafias boss, has discovered the affair between Joe and Emma, and threatens blackmail in an attempt to get Joe to kill White.
Given these 'complications', Joe and Emma decide to run to California after one last bank job, which is going to fund their new lives. Unfortunately the job goes badly wrong, leaving Joe a wanted felon. He attempts still to escape with Emma but in the new circumstances things have changed, the result of which proves nearly fatal for Joe and leaves him incarcerated for three years, a reasonably light sentence thanks to the involvement of his father. As far as he knows White has killed Emma. He leaves prison with vengeance against White on his mind and revisits Pescatore, who sends him to set up an operation in Tampa where White is still a competitor.
He has a great success in Tampa despite some difficulties with the Klan, who don't appreciate his closeness to the non-whites, a closeness that involves a romantic involvement with Graciela, the sister of the Cuban businessman with whom he has set up an illicit rum trafficking operation. All is going well, perhaps too well. He had formed a good relationship with the local Sheriff whose brother-in-law, R.D. Pruitt, is a KKK leader and in an attempt to get the sheriff to set up a meeting with Pruitt, Joe plays an underhand card that he later greatly regrets. Joe's father had said to him, "whatever you put out in the world will come back to you in unexpected ways", and there was never a truer sentiment expressed.
Meanwhile things aren't going well with Pascatore, partly as a result of Joe's entanglement with the sheriff, and in particular the sheriff's daughter, Loretta (Elle Fanning), which isn't quite what you may imagine but to say more would be too much of a spoiler.
This type of film rarely ends well and although at first we think that in this case it may go against type, there is an unexpected surprise towards the end.
He has a great success in Tampa despite some difficulties with the Klan, who don't appreciate his closeness to the non-whites, a closeness that involves a romantic involvement with Graciela, the sister of the Cuban businessman with whom he has set up an illicit rum trafficking operation. All is going well, perhaps too well. He had formed a good relationship with the local Sheriff whose brother-in-law, R.D. Pruitt, is a KKK leader and in an attempt to get the sheriff to set up a meeting with Pruitt, Joe plays an underhand card that he later greatly regrets. Joe's father had said to him, "whatever you put out in the world will come back to you in unexpected ways", and there was never a truer sentiment expressed.
Meanwhile things aren't going well with Pascatore, partly as a result of Joe's entanglement with the sheriff, and in particular the sheriff's daughter, Loretta (Elle Fanning), which isn't quite what you may imagine but to say more would be too much of a spoiler.
This type of film rarely ends well and although at first we think that in this case it may go against type, there is an unexpected surprise towards the end.