Somehow, Ben Affleck just doesn't strike me as the gangster type. Maybe he's just too good looking and debonair in that white suit to cut it as a mob guy. Still, the story is fairly interesting with it's share of rival gangs and pretty women to turn the heads of mobsters on the make. Where Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) runs afoul is by falling for gangster Albert White's girl (Sienna Miller), with the fallout from that liaison resulting in a severe beating and a three year prison stretch. As the son of a Boston cop, Joe doesn't take very well to the kind of life the law requires, and finds himself recruited by Italian mob boss Maso Pescatore (Remo Girone) to go against the Albert White (Robert Glenister) organization, which he's more than happy to do if it gets him his revenge.
The story moves down South to Tampa, where Joe ingratiates himself with local rum runners Esteban (Miguel J. Pimentel) Suarez and sister Graciela (Zoe Saldana). By removing Klan leader RD Pruitt (Matthew Maher) from the picture, Coughlin has pretty much a free hand to take over the entire bootleg operation, but seemingly meets his match when the daughter of Tampa police chief Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper) returns from heroin detox and takes up religion. Joe's failure to deal constructively with Loretta Figgis (Elle Fanning), (in other words, he didn't kill her), earns him a black mark with Pescatore, and the internecine war that ensues leaves a lot of dead bodies in it's wake. I should mention that Coughlin gets reliable support from Boston crony Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina) as his second in command, and I like the way the story left it questionable about Loretta's suicide when Dion brought the sad news to Joe.
Seen as a stand alone picture, this one's not bad for a gangster flick, but when you compare it along side the seminal films of the genre like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas", you'll notice that it's a bit lacking. Still, Affleck does a decent job with all the heavy lifting here as actor, director and screenwriter, while managing to make it to the end of the story, handing over the reins of his crew to sidekick Dion in a somewhat surprising move. Not so for wife Graciela, who was inadvertently rubbed out by the 'repenting' Chief Figgis over the death of his daughter.
I was curious about that film Joe took his young son to see, "Riders of the Eastern Ridge". By it's title, it sounded like it could have been a Tim Holt Western, and with the trio of lawmen who waved goodbye to each other, had the feel of a Three Mesquiteers flick. No such luck though, it's a movie that was never made, and you won't find it here on IMDb.
The story moves down South to Tampa, where Joe ingratiates himself with local rum runners Esteban (Miguel J. Pimentel) Suarez and sister Graciela (Zoe Saldana). By removing Klan leader RD Pruitt (Matthew Maher) from the picture, Coughlin has pretty much a free hand to take over the entire bootleg operation, but seemingly meets his match when the daughter of Tampa police chief Irving Figgis (Chris Cooper) returns from heroin detox and takes up religion. Joe's failure to deal constructively with Loretta Figgis (Elle Fanning), (in other words, he didn't kill her), earns him a black mark with Pescatore, and the internecine war that ensues leaves a lot of dead bodies in it's wake. I should mention that Coughlin gets reliable support from Boston crony Dion Bartolo (Chris Messina) as his second in command, and I like the way the story left it questionable about Loretta's suicide when Dion brought the sad news to Joe.
Seen as a stand alone picture, this one's not bad for a gangster flick, but when you compare it along side the seminal films of the genre like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas", you'll notice that it's a bit lacking. Still, Affleck does a decent job with all the heavy lifting here as actor, director and screenwriter, while managing to make it to the end of the story, handing over the reins of his crew to sidekick Dion in a somewhat surprising move. Not so for wife Graciela, who was inadvertently rubbed out by the 'repenting' Chief Figgis over the death of his daughter.
I was curious about that film Joe took his young son to see, "Riders of the Eastern Ridge". By it's title, it sounded like it could have been a Tim Holt Western, and with the trio of lawmen who waved goodbye to each other, had the feel of a Three Mesquiteers flick. No such luck though, it's a movie that was never made, and you won't find it here on IMDb.