But the past catches up with him, as it always must. There he comes into contact with failed starlet turned preacher Loretta Figgis (Fanning) and falls for beautiful Cuban club proprietor Graciella Suarez (Saldana). But when a bank robbery goes horribly wrong and his affair is no longer a secret, Joe must swallow his pride and accept the patronage of Italian gang capo Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone) who sends him to Florida with his buddy Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina) to manage the rum-running business. Once back in prohibition-era Boston, he becomes a robber and a stickup man, a freebooting outlaw who sleeps by day and lives by night, with no gang allegiances, and has a passionate affair with Emma Gould (Sienna Miller), the mistress of Irish mob boss Albert White (Robert Glenister). Joe is embittered by his time in the ranks serving overseas in the first world war, disgusted by the senseless slaughter and officer-class callousness. Sacrificial … Zoe Saldana as Graciella Suarez. Female stars Elle Fanning and Zoe Saldana are wasted in thankless, sacrificial roles whose purpose is to emphasise Joe’s lantern-jawed sensitivity and gallantry even in the midst of gangsterdom. But there is something narcissistic and tiresome about the forgiving gaze that Affleck turns on himself as Joe, whose nice-guy credentials are always unchallenged, and who is surrounded by simperingly adoring womenfolk. Live By Night has a surface confidence its period settings and style always look good and it boasts some thoughtful, detailed supporting performances from actors playing corruptible cops – Chris Cooper as the careworn Florida officer Figgis and Brendan Gleeson as Thomas Coughlin, the Boston police captain and Joe’s sorrowing father. Perhaps another director could have got something more from him, but Affleck has directed and adapted the award-winning 2012 crime novel by Dennis Lehane – whose Gone Baby Gone he brought to the screen in 2007 for his directorial debut. There is a dull dreamboat handsomeness to his performance throughout. B en Affleck is a dismayingly stolid and uninteresting star turn, playing ambitious young gangster Joe Coughlin in this stodgy, self-important mob drama with borrowings from The Godfather and Scarface.

Live by night novel