Review of Live by Night (2016) by Percy M — 09 Jul 2017

It has been a while since I have seen a film that is so utterly lacking in focus. And I mean that in every sense: narratively, tonally, and stylistically. Ben Affleck has proven himself to be a competent director, and if you take this movie scene for scene, each one is well composed, well acted, and beautifully styled.

But when you put them all together, holy lord, what a gargantuan mess you have on your hands. The problem with this movie is it doesn't know what it is, or is even trying to be, for that matter. Is it a gangster film, a period drama, a throwback noir, or a romance? It's all of them.

.. and none of them. It just won't commit to any, and as a result there is no cohesion, it's just totally scattershot. There are too many characters with too little development, who depart as suddenly as they appear.

The same is true of the themes, which are introduced and then abruptly dropped just when you think they are going somewhere. The film skips around and touches on various themes, such as damnation/redemption, moral ambiguity, and oddly, celebrating diversity (which feels way too "of the moment" for a movie set in the 1920s), but never manages to explore any of them to any effect.

Additionally, there is an anti-religious-fundamentalism slant to this film that just doesn't jibe with the violent nature of the film. Despite being a ruthless gangster, the protagonist somehow is always able to take the moral high ground simply because he isn't racist.

Never mind that he's a thief, extortionist, and murderer... the way the film paints it, none of those things are a problem as long as you're a free thinker. This is just an example of the paradoxes in this film that are never addressed.

Even the title doesn't make any sense within the context of the story. Then there are the pacing problems... despite its frequent bursts of action/violence, it's mostly pretty boring due to its wandering narrative.

I'll give it a lot of credit for how it looks - it is dazzlingly gorgeous with its vivid colors and sweeping landscape shots, and the direction is consistently dynamic. Affleck certainly knows how to work the cameras, even if he struggled with creating a cohesive story this time around.

This film was a misstep for him, to say the least.