The Place Beyond The Pines (13.05.2013)

The Place Beyond The Pines (2012)

Director - Derek Cianfrance

Starring - Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper & Eva Mendes

3.5 stars

In a moment of fateful panic, the lives of two families become unwillingly intertwined.  This is premise behind Derek Cianfrance’s dense drama that is taking the world by storm.

I must say, the commercial hysteria behind this film didn’t prepare me for the 140 minutes of solid, raw drama that I was about to divulge. Anyone who watches this film because they are fans of Ryan Gosling or Bradley Cooper or are just expecting to sink their teeth into the latest drama out in cinemas are leaving themselves open to disappointment. Those who are more in touch with Cianfrance’s other pieces of work, or are hoping for more of a ‘Blue Valentine’ type feel are much closer to the hole.

Like Blue Valentine (Cianfrance’s 2011 feature, also starring the Gos), this film is based in suburbia and the plot advances largely through character development and interaction. It explores so many issues throughout its entirety, breaks itself up into three very clear and concise acts and presents a number of thought provoking ideas. All of this on the back of an all-star Hollywood cast which has some of the lesser lights playing outside of themselves more so than the A-graders.

Gosling’s character Luke is a tattooed, chain smoking motorcycle stunt rider who travels around the country with the circus. During a return trip to Schenectady, New York, he revisits Romina (Eva Mendes) only to discover that she had given birth to his son since he last saw her. With a renewed sense of purpose, Luke quits his job with the sole purpose of being able to provide for his newly discovered family. With work scarce, he turns to robbing banks, an idea he picks up from Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). It’s this new line of work that ensures he crosses paths with policeman Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) and their eventual meeting will set both them and the people in their lives on a completely new path forever.

The overall narrative breaks itself down into three very clear sections and there are parts throughout that ensure this two and a half plus hour beast can be a bit of a hard slog. There are so many issues explored throughout that it can get difficult to understand where the whole thing is headed. Whilst it was an extremely gratifyingly thought provoking experience, sometimes it was tough trying to figure out what it was exactly that Cianfrance wanted to portray and explore.

Another slight disadvantage of having a clear cut three act narrative was the fact that the overall process felt a bit jerky and was filled with a number of emotional shifts. This can also be construed as a positive as the film continuously kept you on your feet. There was so much depth in every scene (emotional depth) and the narrative was filled was a plethora of layers that you really had to dig through to grasp the full experience.

Despite its flaws, this is a real winner for film lovers of all ages. There is so much more than meets the eye and Cianfrance doesn’t waste a scene or a line. The actors come to the party and work through the depth of the script with expected class. Any movie that has you thinking long and hard about it is a good one in my opinion.   

Gosling and Copper are fantastic – but we expect that now. I don’t think either of them really pushed themselves to new lengths in this film. For me it was Aussie Ben Mendelsohn who really stood out. His character, Robin, turned out to be somewhat of a father figure to Luke (father-son relationship is a key issue explored throughout the narrative) and his performance was quite inspiring as he was able to show many facets of a character who on the surface appeared quite reserved and happy to stay in the shadows.

The Place Beyond The Pines is deep, honest and has a wonderful ability to continue to tie back to events of the past and illustrate how they’ve affected the future for every single individual. It explored the eerie fact that every action has a consequence and those consequences will continue to rise their head throughout everything in life. Despite some of its flaws, it really does possess some breathtaking aspects of cinema, narrative and acting. To really sink your teeth into it, it will certainly require more than one viewing but it didn’t really inspire me rush to go at it for a second time just yet.

Guess who's back?!

I'm well aware that it has almost been two years since I last contributed to my own blog. With that said, I'm proud to announce that I'm back and ready to turn this into something special.

The reasoning behind my hiatus was that I had been freelance writing for a website and part of the deal was that anything that was published there wasn't allowed to be published anywhere else. Pretty simple really. As it turns out, they have elected to turn their business in a new direction and in the process have decided that using freelance writers isn't something they will continue with.

What does that mean for me? Well now I can go back to using my own space and my own syles. The only editor I need to get past is myself (excuse any spelling and grammatical errors) and my love and spark for film has never been stronger.

Stay tuned for my big return piece in the coming days. What better way to do this than by reviewing The Place Beyond The Pines which I saw on the weekend.

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting me on this journey for the past five years. Your support and advice is paramount and doesn't got unnoticed!

Let's get watching!