Post by StevePulaski on Apr 20, 2013 15:40:17 GMT -5
Ryan Gosling.
Rating: ★★★½
The Place Beyond the Pines features an opening shot I won't soon forget. The camera intimately follows a tattooed man through a seamy carnival, as he puts his clothes on and makes his way through a large crowd of people to get to his motorcycle. He and three other people will ride separate motorcycles in a large, metal sphere, dodging each other by seconds and defying gravity all the more. All of this is done in one lengthy two-minute take that sets the eerily natural and ambitious tone of the film we're about to see.
The tattooed man is Ryan Gosling's Luke, who quits this carnival job when he discovers he has a child with Romina (Eva Mendes), an ex-lover. He tries to be an appropriate father-figure, despite her moving on and carrying on a relationship with a new man. Nonetheless, Luke tries to man up and take care of responsibilities by quitting his carnival job in favor of a bank-robbing career with a close friend to service him and his child financially.
The film is a generational triptych, focusing on three different stories over the span of years. During the first act, Luke becomes acquainted with officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), who's life after a heroic event will be the direct focus of the second act. Meanwhile, Luke's son and Avery's son meeting in a sort of ill-fated relationship will be the prominent focus of the third act, effectively making the triptych complete.
Gosling has gone on to be one of the most reliable characters actors in such a short amount of time. Bradley Cooper as well, and both men take a comfortable shift into the front row with this picture. Gosling has a way of being subtle and electric on screen, due to this careful approach to weighty material like this. Cooper, however, plays almost every role he encounters with a common-man realism, making it easy for many audience members to relate to. Supporting performances involving Eva Mendes and Ray Liotta (who is sadly shortchanged here, though) are also quite memorable and give the film the added zest it needs.
However, the truly compelling theme that encompasses each vignette is the idea of fatherhood and its role it plays in the lives of youths. Luke is a promising man, despite clearly having made many a mistake in his time. His intentions are great, but his delivery is almost too-little-too-late as he realizes that his girlfriend really doesn't want or need his help anymore. She has moved on and now it's his turn. Avery, on the other hand, is a father who is there for his young son, but also a bit too consumed by work and his new heroic status. Regardless, he still spends more time with his kid than Luke, but in the end, they prove to be equally mediocre teenagers.
Director Derek Cianfrance seems to be showing that fatherhood works in mysterious ways, and that intentions and attention doesn't always make a good kid. This theme seems to encompass much of the film, even during the final shot when we see Luke's son take on a life we thought he found contemptible. This is a film that, in one-hundred and forty minutes, takes on a wide range of human emotion and makes you feel it too.
The Place Beyond the Pines is a wonderfully ambitious film, in a different league than other heavy works such as Cloud Atlas and The Tree of Life. Rather than be existential and coming with an extremely weighty moral and heavy bouts of ambiguity, it sets its ambitiousness on being arty, subtle, and relatively moving, making the most unlikable character likable as we see his true emotions and humanity come forth.
NOTE: My video review of The Place Beyond the Pines, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGhIsozRvcI
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, and Ray Liotta. Directed by: Derek Cianfrance.