The Place Beyond the Pines

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne

Plot: A travelling motorcycle stuntman discovers he has a son with an old flame whilst passing through her town. He decides to stick around to try and be a father to said child however times being what they are, he resorts to robbing banks in order to provide support. Drama ensues.

Hugh's View:

If there is a director you can count to show you bad times in a good way, it is clearly Derek Cianfrance. After depicting the decline of the relationship between a husband and wife in graphic detail with Blue Valentine (2010), he returns to attempt a similar feat between fathers and sons in The Place Beyond the Pines. The difference this time being the scale of the drama. Whilst Blue Valentine found the devil in the detail, showing how the minutiae of everyday married life could overwhelm the foundations of love, The Place Beyond the Pines goes epic with a sense of inevitable fatalism driving the characters towards their downbeat destinies.

Ryan Gosling plays Luke, the boyishly handsome yet ruggedly manly (anti)hero of the piece as it kicks off. If you haven't seen the posters it wont be too hard to picture. He's the kinda guy who, were you to take him home to meet your mama, she's gonna tell say that boys no good, he's trouble, you stay away from him. But you won't because you will get lost in the eyes that tell you there is a heart of gold somewhere beneath the stormy depths of his soul, all the while ignoring the fact that he clearly has 'heartbreak' written across his forehead. It is the kind of character he is becoming synonymous with, and for good reason. He plays it well.

The problem is, this film is not about a leading man and the story to be told is not his alone. What you ostensibly have is a trifecta of connected stories, detailing the relationships of various fathers and their various sons. Luke may be the butterfly that makes a big deal out of flapping his wings in china but this film is just as interested in the resulting tornado that traverses time and reaps destruction along the way. The problem is, whilst the concept may be interesting, all stories are not created equally.

This film simply does not wear its running time well. The structure being what it is means you come out knowing full well you have been watching it for all of the two hours and twenty minutes it has to offer. This is a result of the pacing which starts out all guns blazing and then switches to water pistols a third of the way through when Bradley Coopers character, clean cut police officer Avery, takes the limelight. It is not so much that he doesn't have an interesting story to tell, it is more that his story is far more pedestrian. Quite literally. Luke zooms around on a motorcycle, Avery spends most of his time walking with a limp. Luke's is a story of actions, Avery's is a story of consequences.

Like a roller-coaster that starts off kicks off at a drastic speed throwing you through loops and turns, it uses the second story to drag you up a slope, attempting to ratchet up the tension on the way before using all its gathered momentum to ride you through the final descent of the third story, staying in the pit of your stomach the whole way. It is not really possible to say anything about the final act without spoiling the fun of the build up, suffice to say once you can see where it is going, it won't be too hard to plot the final course.

Your opinion on this last segment will likely decide your overall reaction to the film. It arrives with a sense of blood brothers-esque pre-destination which you can view as fitting with the established themes of inevitability and fate, or view as a contrivance that doesn't sit well alongside gritty, human led drama that has gone before it. I personally respect the films ambition with the story it tries to tell, however my gut response ultimately leans towards the latter. Despite any pacing issues, you do invest in all the characters leading up to this point and you truly care about their relationships. Whilst this is still the case towards the end, the contrivance can't help but dilute the sensation. You also have to question whether the films ending truly has the strength of its convictions. Obviously I am not going to discuss that here though. That would mean ruining the ending. What do you take me for?

Overall Derek Cianfrance has delivered an intimate epic formed from the misery sewn by fathers and the sorrow harvested by their sons. Whilst it succeeds at having you dab the tears from your eyes with one hand, it will likely have you checking your watch with the other.

See also:
Blue Valentine. If The Place Beyond the Pines is emotional shotgun blast, this is a dagger and it knows just where to get you. Hard to recommend as an 'enjoyable experience, but no less compelling for it.