A couple of weeks ago I went to a special screening of the film, The Place Beyond the Pines. Starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper and directed by Derek Cianfrance. Now some films consist of a couple plots with a linear storyline. Pines kept a linear story but carried it out of 18 years. It is a story of how one simple mistake can change our entire life. It is about the relationships between fathers and sons and the legacy they leave behind, but most importantly it is a story about a town; a town that creates these people and then slowly brings them down. Taking place in Schenectady New York it begins with Ryan Gosling carrying his mysterious and dangerous persona he seems to love to portray lately. He plays Luke a motorcycle star that works for a traveling carnival. Luke soon learns that he has a son with a former fling (Eva Mendes). Luke quickly finds a way to support both his lover and his newborn son. Luke uses his motor skills and decides to rob banks. This eventually causes him to cross paths with Bradley Coopers character Avery Cross who is an aspiring rookie cop. From here the story then takes on Cooper’s story as Cross while he deals with a corrupt police force and trying to cope with taking care of his own son. The third part then consists of the two men’s’ sons continuing to grow up in Schenectady and dealing with the lives their father’s gave them. The film is long and consists of three separate stories, but this does not bring it down. The characters created and the world they live in are all too real. We can relate to this people, we know what its like to ponder on the future of not just ourselves, but our family. Both Gosling and Cooper shine in their roles as two fathers from opposite worlds but both struggling with the same dilemmas of raising a child while trying not to destroy themselves. Filmed on location in Schenectady the town itself gives life to the movie. We see the people that live there everyday and we quickly become immersed in the town. Derek Cianfrance knows how to create a real situation and give us real characters to follow. He did so with his debut film Blue Valentine (also starring Gosling) as we watched two lovers destroy their lives together. But with Pines he doesn’t just destroy his characters he makes them beg, they all know the paths they have chosen, but even as they go deeper into the ground they still try to claw their way out which only makes it more intense to watch. We want these people to escape the choices they made and possibly get out and away from where they live, but they devoted too much time and mistakes into Schenectady to ever truly leave. The Place Beyond the Pines is easily the finest acting piece I have seen this year, and shows us that running away is never easy; especially when it is from yourself.
The Place Beyond the Pines A-
Source:
http://mymindtheenigma.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/film-review-the-place-beyond-the-pines/