The Place Beyond the Pines
The Place Beyond the Pines
Directed by Derek Cianfrance
Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
"Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” -Exodus 34:7
While it is different from what I expected, and there are a few narrative problems I have with the film, what I found in Place Beyond the Pines was a very heartfelt, emotional experience that I heartily recommend to any fans of that kind of film.
The first story starts with Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), a ex con who lives and works with a traveling fair that has stopped for a time in Synecdoche, New York. He meets a former girlfriend of his named Romina (Eva Mendes) who has a new boyfriend and learns that he has a baby boy named Jason. Leaving the fair he gets a job and a place to stay with a friend and soon turns to bank robbing to help pay for his son. After a botched bank robbery we switch perspective to Avery (Bradley Cooper), a hero cop who is struggling to readjust to normal life when he comes across corruption in the police force. He takes it to the DA and is appointed to assistant DA. Fast forward fifteen years later and we are introduced to AJ (Emory Cohen), Avery's sixteen year old son, who moves from Detroit to Synecdoche to be closer to his father who is running for Attorney General. There he meets Jason, the sixteen year old son of Luke and Romina. They spark up a kind of friendship but soon must come to terms with who their fathers are and what they've done.
I think I've said it before but I am a sucker for emotional dramas. If you've ever seen the film Forsaken starring Donald and Kiefer Sutherland you'd know that it doesn't do anything really special, aside from some fantastic performances from the two leads, but I love the father and son story. This film kind of does that but in a much different way. Jason and AJ don't really know their fathers, Jason especially. The film explores the themes of fatherhood and what it means to lack a connection with your father pretty handily though I think it could have been done a bit better.
The biggest, and I think the only, problem I had with this film is that I don't think it utilizes it's characters well enough. You could make three separate films by expanding each of these sections. That isn't to say I want to see that happen but I feel like this film bites off a bit more than it can chew narratively. The stuff with Luke and his son, great. The stuff with Avery and his son, also great. The stuff with police corruption? I don't think it really fits in very well. I think if the film expanded on what it did with the feelings Avery had at the beginning of his section and the guilt he felt and expanded further on his relationship with his son it would have been more effective. Another aspect of this is Jason's relationship to his stepfather Kofi (played by the fantastic Mahershala Ali) that goes almost completely unexplored. Still, what is here is great and it's got some heavy, thought provoking themes that will keep you thinking for hours after the credits roll.
The acting is spectacular across the board. Seriously, I don't think I found a single bad performance from anyone. With such an emotional film there's a lot of room to mess up and either under or overact but the actors and director are skilled enough in their craft to completely avoid these pitfalls. Sure there are a couple of times when someone is supposed to be crying and they aren't but I've just come to accept that, for better or worse. I was thoroughly impressed with everyone on this list and you can tell that they're giving it their all.
The top bill on this movie is two time Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling and he kills it in every frame of this movie. I notice a lot of people bag on him for some of his performances, he does play the same character in a lot of films I've seen him in, but if nothing else this film is a testament to his ability. He plays a man who didn't really know his father and doesn't want the same for his son. He quits his job just to be supportive and to get to know his son, faults and all, and is willing to sacrifice for his well being. There is a particular scene that just rips at my heart strings that I think will do the same for everyone else. I think my favorite scene of his takes place in a church as he watches Jason get baptized, it's small but it hits all the right notes perfectly.
The other honorable mention is Bradley Cooper. I like this guy in almost everything and he is fantastic here to. While I don't like his story as much as Gosling's, he's got some serious dramatic talent on display that is well utilized here. A certain scene with him at the end is almost perfect and is a credit to him as an actor. I felt that the weaker parts of his performance are more a fault of the script than anything else and he works well with what he's been given.
I'd also like to say that Dane DeHaan is great in his role as Jason. Aside from this film I've only seen him play Harry Osbourne in The Amazing Spider-Man and after that film I didn't expect what I got from him here. He doesn't have a ton of time to shine but he plays one of the better roles here and he gets a little close to stealing the show, not quite though. Some praise needs to be given to the supporting cast as well, I'd like to mention Eva Mendes, Mahershala Ali, Ben Mendelsohn (who is increasingly becoming one of my favorite supporting actors), and Ray Liotta. None of them get a whole lot of time, especially the criminally underutilized Mahershala Ali, but they all give decent performances considering what they've been given and their only flaw is that they aren't given enough time to truly shine.
The cinematography is phenomenal here. Big praise must be given to Sean Bobbitt who has some amazing work on display. The opening shot follows behind Gosling as he weaves through the crowds of the fair and perfectly sets the very personal tone the film strives for. Another great mention is a chase scene roughly in the middle of the flick that utilizes handheld camera shots that shake violently, an example of proper, exceptional use of shaky cam that is often maligned because hack filmmakers think that it's a good way to increase tension without considering how to do it properly. This is how it is supposed to be used and it's used to great effect.
The films soundtrack, scored by Mike Patton, is nothing short of fantastic. I liked how the music was used to subtly emphasize the emotion of the cinematography and acting and the song used in the credits, The Wolves, is perfect and I've had it on repeat the entire time I've been writing this. It's nothing short of fantastic.
This is a film that shoots for the moon and lands among the stars, if you'll excuse my use of the phrase every elementary school teacher had as a banner in their classroom. While I had a few big problems with the narrative I can't pretend that they make this film anything less than fantastic. Is it a must-see? Not for everyone, especially if this isn't really your preferred genre as it can be a bit slow in parts, but it comes highly recommended if it isn't. The acting alone could make this an easy recommendation but with the soundtrack, cinematography, narrative and fantastic directing this becomes a much stronger recommendation. It's on Netflix right now and I heartily recommend it, what have you got to lose but two hours of your time?
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