Set in the depression and prohibition era of the 1920’s and 1930’s, Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) is the son of Boston police Captain Thomas Coughlin (Brendan Gleeson) but rather than follow in his fathers footsteps Joe prefers the other side of the tracks and runs with criminals and women much to his fathers chagrin.

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His main squeeze is Emma Gould (Sienna Millar) but she is already taken by local big wig Albert White (Robert Glenister) so their liaisons are all done in secret. When this doomed relationship ends poorly, leading to Joe spending time behind bars, he is forced to ditch his lone wolf stance and head to Tampa to work for the Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore, where he finds his fortunes improve dramatically as he moves up the food chain to eventually run most of the Florida area, thanks in no small part to his befriending of the immigrant Caribbean population to corner the rum distribution market. He is ably assisted through all this by this loyal friend Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina) and local Chief of police Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper) but inevitably getting to the top of the ladder means there are those beneath you who want a shot at top spot and Joe has to take extreme measures to stay in command especially when the local chapter of the KKK decides that they want a piece of the pie, leading to Joe becoming more weary of his lifestyle and deciding he wants to find a life for himself away from it all with his new love Graciella Corrales (Zoe Saldada) but letting go proves much more difficult then Joe expects.

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Taking aside Affleck’s acting career, I actually like him as an actor but I understand those who find him a bit wooden, it’s hard to find fault with his performance behind the camera, with, in particular, The Town and Gone Girl being great examples of good film making and this movie is no different. It is a very well made, well shot film with some very good action scenes interspersed through it, but this is, by far, the weakest of his movies as a whole package. Where the was good tension and intrigue in his previous efforts this movie seemed dull, the pacing was poor and the plot seemed very weak. It starts well enough and the Boston scenes are good, setting the movie up very well but once the action moves to Tampa it drags terribly before redeeming itself a bit in the last third or so.

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Taking a few dodgy Irish accents out of the ring, there’s nothing wrong with the acting, everyone does well with what they are given, in particular Cooper and Messina are excellent but there seems to be a bit of a discord between the plot threads leaving the interactions between some characters seem like they are not genuine which takes you out of the moment. In particular there is a story line around Coopers daughter Loretta Figgis (Elle Fanning) which could have been a really good plot point but for me it was handled very poorly leaving it feeling out of context for how the rest of the movie flows.

There was a big smell of Oscar bait off on screen and that seemed to take some of the potential shine away from the story which is disappointing as it ends us as a mediocre gangster film with very little we haven’t seen before.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5 Out Of 10

©Darren Jones 2016