By: our friend Andrew
The Place Beyond the Pines, directed by Derek Cianfrance, is a
gritty, crime-drama, driven by “father to son” relationships, and how their
faulty sins can linger on generationally. As an ambitious, thick plotted film,
Cianfrance divided the film into 3 interrelated stories; which introduces, Ryan
Gosling’s (... And I can imagine women and some men go wild! Screaming and
howling and some possibly fanning themselves because they're working a sweat, fantasizing, when I say his name!) and Bradley
Cooper’s characters, respectively, and lastly introduces their sons 15 years
later in the final.
As mentioned, in the first - third of the film Luke (Gosling’s
character), who is a badass, daring motorcycle stunt rider, discovers that he
has a son that he hadn't known about. Besides the dirty, tattooed, “bad boy”
appearance, Luke’s right sense of morals arise as he decides to quit his job as
a stunt rider to stay in Schenectady,NY and without hesitation tries to make an
effort to be with his child and the mother, Romina, played by Eva Mendes. With
good intentions to help support his child and his girlfriend (although she
has a new man in the picture, who is “fathering” Luke’s child, we’ll just
call her that to formalize things), Luke turns to robbing banks. However,
with his intent to provide and support his new-found family, Luke unknowingly
distances himself away from those he is trying to hold onto.
In the second part of the film, Avery (Cooper’s character), who
perceives himself as a humbled good cop, stumbles into a heated mess with his
crooked colleagues and with an alternative motive in mind by climbing his way
to the top of the force (I hope I’m not giving too much), Avery’s morals
are then tested and with that said he leads himself into a path of wrong
choices.
Although Luke and Avery are situated on opposite ends of the
law, the common goal between the two are their eagerness to obtain their ideal
of the “American Dream”, to provide and support the ones they love¾ and in
Avery’s case, to build a legacy. Both characters are genuinely good-hearted
people but tend to find themselves walking in the wrong paths. By this end of
the second part of the film, we can easily see the similarities and how bad
choices will not only affect themselves, but also those close to them.
As we continue to the third segment, Cianfrance jumps 15 years
later, where we are reintroduced to Luke’s and Avery’s now-teenage sons. To
keep it short, and I apologize for the “cut and dry” final sum-up, it focuses
on the two oddly becoming ‘frenemies’: how the history of their father’s
resurfaces and that KARMA is real.
Ultimately, the layers of the film are quite dense, where it may
seem as if there is a lot going on as a whole, and may also seem lengthy, with
huge gaps. However, the story is raw and compelling and Cianfrance does well at
drawing a full-circle when merging the interrelated stories together. For the
“Film Whores” or “Movie Buffs” out there who appreciate film and look at film
on a larger scale (like me), you will enjoy this movie! I think it’s
brilliant and with the help of Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography, the story and film
moves beautifully and consistently at the beginning, end and all in-between.
I give it … the best fucking film I've seen in a long time.
Check out some of Andrew's other stuff here. He's dope.
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