Ben Affleck will try to reactivate his Argo mojo with Live By Night, a new prestige-y gangster picture coming to theaters very late in December (and expanding wider in 2017). Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (who also wrote the source for Affleck’s first directorial effort, Gone Baby Gone), the film stars Affleck, who also directed and penned the screenplay, as the son of a Boston police captain who ventures into a life of crime. The cast also includes Elle Fanning, Brendan Gleeson, and Sienna Miller. Here’s the official synopsis:

What you put out into this world will always come back to you, but it never comes back how you predict. Taking fatherly advice is not in Joe Coughlin’s nature. Instead, the WWI vet is a self-proclaimed anti-establishment outlaw, despite being the son of the Boston Police Deputy Superintendent. Joe’s not all bad, though; in fact, he’s not really bad enough for the life he’s chosen. Unlike the gangsters he refuses to work for, he has a sense of justice and an open heart, and both work against him, leaving him vulnerable time and again—in business and in love. Driven by a need to right the wrongs committed against him and those close to him, Joe heads down a risky path that goes against his upbringing and his own moral code. Leaving the cold Boston winter behind, he and his reckless crew turn up the heat in Tampa. And while revenge may taste sweeter than the molasses that infuses every drop of illegal rum he runs, Joe will learn that it comes at a price.

I must admit I don’t get much of that story in this trailer, which seems more like a traditional gangster picture. But maybe that will be the thing that sets Live By Night apart from so many other movies with this subject matter and style. Live By Night opens in limited release on December 25 and in wide release on January 13, 2017.

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