‘Live by Night’ Review: Ben Affleck Presents the Boring Twenties

[...] while his Boston-based crime dramas “Gone Baby Gone” (like “Live by Night,” an adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel) and “The Town” were lean and gritty, with no-nonsense thrills that called to mind the work of director Don Siegel, this more ambitious epic comes off as bloated and meandering.

In that ever-present (and ever more irritating) narration, Joe informs us that after surviving the horrors of World War I, he would never again allow himself to follow orders.

[...] there’s Figgis’ daughter Loretta (Elle Fanning), who went to Hollywood to become a star and got turned into a junkie instead; Joe rescues her in the hopes of having leverage with the local law, but then she becomes an Aimee Semple McPherson-esque revival preacher, swaying the masses with her tales of sin and redemption.

(Displaying the track marks on her arms never fails to wow the crowds.) When she starts preaching against gambling, that jeopardizes the Italian mob’s plans to build a huge casino in the state, putting Joe in a tense position.

Cinematographer Robert Richardson (a go-to cinematographer for both Scorsese and Tarantino) captures the distinct qualities of Massachusetts fog and Florida sunshine, giving pulsing life to nightclubs, cigar factories and seaside resorts.

In a tighter movie, such abrupt changes wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but as it is, the brother’s absence only raises the question of what else was left in the editing suite, and whether or not any of that footage might have helped this well-intentioned disappointment.