X
- 2013
- R
- Focus Features
- 2 h 20 m
- 2013
- R
- Focus Features
- 2 h 20 m
Summary A motorcycle stunt rider considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician.
Directed By: Derek Cianfrance
Written By: Ben Coccio, Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance
- 2013
- R
- Focus Features
- 2 h 20 m
- 2013
- R
- Focus Features
- 2 h 20 m
The Place Beyond the Pines
68
8.4
Where to Watch
Summary A motorcycle stunt rider considers committing a crime in order to provide for his wife and child, an act that puts him on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician.
Directed By: Derek Cianfrance
Written By: Ben Coccio, Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 42 Critic Reviews
68
69% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
31% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 42 Critic Reviews
68
69% Positive
29 Reviews
29 Reviews
31% Mixed
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The music, the cinematography, the acting choices, the daring plot leaps — not a single element is timid or safe...The Place Beyond the Pines earns every second of its 140-minute running time.
It is a better, more fully felt and moving picture than "Blue Valentine."
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 608 User Ratings
8.4
87% Positive
529 Ratings
529 Ratings
10% Mixed
59 Ratings
59 Ratings
3% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 608 User Ratings
8.4
87% Positive
529 Ratings
529 Ratings
10% Mixed
59 Ratings
59 Ratings
3% Negative
20 Ratings
20 Ratings
A powerful and emotional tale of consequence and fathers, is well shot, phenomenally acted and has a moving script.
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Gosling and Cooper use their star currency to power a slow-burn, heartsick drama. "Blue Valentine" director Cianfrance is a serious talent.
The Place Beyond the Pines can’t be said to be anyone’s movie but Cianfrance’s. Structured as a triptych, the movie is novelistic, earnest and somewhat exhausting — an ambitious effort that tries to be many things. And it is definitely something: a sprawling, engaging study in fathers, sons and sins.
Once again, Cianfrance handles the individual scenes with menacing aplomb but, once again, the whole is much less than the sum of its parts.
While the scope of the movie is bigger, its impact is smaller. "Blue Valentine" was a precise, heartrending portrait of a marriage coming apart at the seams. The theme of his new movie is a lot harder to discern.
The film never reaches a climax because it's always in one, distilling the lives of its characters to their tensest moments.
Following "Blue Valentine," would the film be a similarly intimate and narrowly focused story or something completely different? The answer is that "The Place Beyond The Pines" is an ambitious epic that is cut from some of the same thematic tissue as Cianfrance's previous film, but expands the scope into a wondrously widescreen tale of fathers, sons and the legacy of sins that are passed down through the generations.
Cianfrance opens the film with a bravura tracking shot, following Ryan Gosling's Luke from behind, Dardennes Brothers style, as he walks through a carnival in upstate in New York, eventually arriving at the main event. He leads a group of stunt drivers that motorcycle daredevil style in an enclosed circular metal cage at top speed, as they defy death by narrowly keeping from crashing into each other. His plethora of tattoos on nearly every part of body indicate a past of pain and trouble, and his job is one that means he's always on the move. But things change when he learns his fling with waitress Romina (Eva Mendes) the previous year when he was last through town, has resulted in a son.
While his life up until this point may be dishonorable, lonely and unsteady, Luke is determined to do the reputable thing and contribute to the support of his child, despite the obstacles in his way. Romina is living with another man, and a stunt driver has little employment options outside of minimum wage gigs. Luke makes friends with the similarly shady Robin (Ben Mendelsohn from "Animal Kingdom" and "The Dark Knight Rises") who runs an auto body **** also happens to be a former bank robber. It isn't long before the pair decide to team on this illegal, but very well paying job, but Luke's path puts him right on a collision course with Avery (Bradley Cooper), a local cop.
And that's all I can tell you about the plot because a major narrative twist at the end first act is best left unspoiled, but this shift raises the stakes and reorients the story so dramatically that 'Pines' begins to take on a scale few films attempt, let alone achieve. In some ways, one could look at 'Pines' as a spiritual sequel to "Blue Valentine." If the latter film chronicled in raw, intimate detail the fracture of a relationship, it's in 'Pines' that Cianfrance follows what the fallout would be. This is a film that is very much about how the actions of the father, directly and indirectly pass on to the son. Or how the fissures and mistakes of the previous generation, have ramifications both practical and emotional months, years and decades later.
There will be some who will tilt the film and viewing it from another angle, it could be regarded as an allegory for the moral turpitude that has shaken the American dream. At one point, Avery reflects that when he was in law school, justice was viewed as a concept that was discussed, not as a tangible right. And only by becoming a cop, could he actually ensure justice was carried out, although it was by force. But as we learn, Avery and Luke are both morally compromised, even as they try to do with the right thing in both their lives. But what is undeniable is that while Luke is clearly breaking the law, the fallout from Avery's ethically dubious actions hits those hard on the social and financial rung below him. And that unfairness is not only unforgotten, but festers and boils beneath the surface.
All of these elements -- working class struggle, familial and generational discord, the relationship (or lack thereof) between fathers and sons -- builds tremendously into a film that feels like it has shades of classic Italian melodramas put through the lens of a distinctly American film. No surprise then that the score and soundtrack veers from Arvo Part to new music from Mike Patton to the electronic crunch of Amon Tobin and still feels of a whole. It's part **** production tapestry that elevates this picture to another dimension.
And then there's the cinematography by Steve McQueen's frequent collaborator Sean Bobbitt who has worked on all his films. Capturing the feel of small town Schenectady, while also opening up and providing breathtaking, beautiful vistas of New York state countryside, it visually helps 'Pines' establish itself as a film of big ideas and vision. That the film is strongly acted across the board, the final pieces in helping Cianfrance deliver his first grand opus, is almost an afterthought. Gosling, Cooper, Mendes and Mendelsohn all do terrific work (the latter continuing to astonish at how easily he can shapeshift into roles). But we'd be remiss in not giving kudos to both Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen who arrive at a key juncture and deliver with some astonishing work. The latter in particular is a true revelation.
A brilliant, towering picture, "The Place Beyond The Pines" is a cinematic accomplishment of extraordinary grace and insight.
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with effective intense performance..
The Place Beyond The Pines
Cianfrance's eerie character driven formula is something that actually doesn't circle around the characters but completely follows storyline. And within that primary track, it takes its time and tells multiple other tales through it, all in all blending in the almost perfect crime drama one could hope for. It is brilliantly executed and went into production with sheer passion and enthusiasm that never wears off, you can practically see the hard work that went by on each day of the shooting. And as much as dedication is involved in this feature, the concept that it focuses on is quite familiar.
If the primary characters are three dimensional and perfectly cooked, the side characters on the other hand are left out as mere pawns that follows up certain allotted characteristics. It's stereotypical narration isn't its weakness since it is a safe play by the writers. Such gripping script is usually thoroughly entertaining and competent for the viewers. And in here, even though the slow pill in the script is not for everyone, it keeps you busy in its drama more than the crimes and bullets and stunts does. Gosling opens up this world for the viewers with effective intense performance whose impact never wears out.
Carrying on the passed torch, Cooper soars through this entire feature as an underdog that may be vulnerable at times but not weak. Mendes, Ali, Byrne and Liotta are decently supporting the cast if not anything exceptionally brilliant. Cianfrance's excellence is making this escapist movie about a confronting one, and on that note of evolution, it is a triumph. The Place Beyond The Pines is actually quite near to you, you have to look for it and in this battlefield Cianfrance helps you observe it by imputing a twist of family drama into it.
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Great opening but the end fell short. An enjoyable film for fans of the actors. Not a must see film.
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Production Company
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment,
Electric City Entertainment,
Verisimilitude
Release Date Mar 29, 2013
Duration 2 h 20 m
Rating R
Tagline One moment can change your life.
Awards
International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)
• 5 Nominations
Golden Trailer Awards
• 3 Nominations
Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards
• 3 Nominations
