Adapted from Dennis Lehane's 2012 Edgar Award-winning crime novel, director-star Ben Affleck's drama finds disillusioned WWI vet Joe Coughlin (Affleck) returning home to Prohibition-era Boston, vowing never to take orders from anyone again. Resisting all authority, he becomes a thief and outlaw, falling in love with Emma (Sienna Miller), the sassy, selfish mistress of an Irish gangster (Robert Glenister). Badly beaten and believing that Emma is dead, Joe allies himself with the boss (Remo Gitone) of the rival Italian Mafia, much to the chagrin of his law-abiding dad (Brendan Gleeson), a bigwig with the Boston police, who warns, “What you put out into the world will always come back to haunt you, but never how you predict.” When Joe is dispatched to run Florida's rum-smuggling racket, he marries a black Cuban émigré (Zoe Saldana), becoming a target of the Ku Klux Klan leader (Matthew Maher), who is the brother-in-law of the pious, pragmatic sheriff (Chris Cooper). Meanwhile, the sheriff's aspiring starlet daughter (Elle Fanning) takes off on an ill-fated trip to Hollywood, eventually becoming a Bible-thumping evangelist. Live by Night is weighed down by melodramatic subplots and extraneous characters, consistently choosing clichéd style over narrative substance. Optional. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include deleted scenes with optional commentary (16 min.). Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are an audio commentary by director Ben Affleck, cinematographer Robert Richardson, and production designer Jess Gonchor, the behind-the-scenes featurettes “Angels with Dirty Faces: The Women” (9 min.), “The Men” (9 min.), “In Close Up: Creating a Classic Car Chase” (8 min.), and “Prolific Author” (7 min.), and a bonus UltraViolet copy of the film. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray extras package for a disappointing film.] (S. Granger)
Live by Night
Warner, 129 min., R, DVD: $28.98, Blu-ray: $29.98, Mar. 21 Volume 32, Issue 3
Live by Night
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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