Movie Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

Title: The Place Beyond the Pines
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance
Distributed by: Focus Features
Release Date: March 29, 2013 (Limited)
Rated: R

Synopsis: A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective. (Via IMDB)

Brian’s Review: Here it is, the first great film of 2013. The Place Beyond the Pines is a superb achievement, a film that plays out like a great thought-provoking novel. Derek Cianfrance’s first feature Blue Valentine was one of my favorite films of 2010, and I had high expectations for his follow-up. I had a feeling walking in this film was going to be good, but I didn’t prepare for how good. This is one of those two-and-a-half-hour movies I could have easily watched another hour of. There’s a startling immediacy to Cianfrance’s work, from the look of his films, to the raw performances, to stories that go to very dark places. His films aren’t for everyone, but I found Blue Valentine, and now The Place Beyond the Pines, two of the best films I’ve seen in recent years.

In essence you get three mesmerizing short films in The Place Beyond the Pines for the price of one. One story involves Gosling—who continues, movie after movie, to pick great material and deliver better and better performances—as a motorcycle stunt rider who discovers a fling he had resulted in a one-year-old child, and he starts robbing banks in order to contribute to the baby’s future. Another story involves a cop (Bradley Cooper) who gets caught up in corruption at work and has to decide whether to rat on his fellow policemen or look the other way. The last story involves a turbulent friendship between two teenagers who get in deep trouble when they find out just who each other is, and what their backgrounds mean to their uncertain futures. It’s a weird comparison, but the film reminded me of Psycho, in the way the narrative is structured. Essentially you think the film is about one thing, and then in ten seconds time, you realize it’s about something else. This happens twice in the film, even though in the end all the stories connect in a way that satisfies way more than any traditional narrative could have provided.

The Place Beyond the Pines may have reminded me of Psycho in its structure, but in its themes it brought to mind movies like The Godfather and Goodfellas. It’s an epic that’s not on the level of those two masterpieces, but in my mind is just one notch lower. As much as I love Blue Valentine, it’s a film very limited in scope, as it examines the relationship between two people in two very different periods of their lives. The Place Beyond the Pines has a much broader canvas, dealing with multiple important characters over three stories, in different time periods. Yet Cianfrance still manages to keep this sprawling narrative tight and intimate at all times, and continues, even when a major character is long gone, to flash back to the beginning, to where the epic journey began. Some may be disappointed as to the fate of a major character, some may cry “how convenient” in the third act. But these surprising developments make for some of the most riveting drama I’ve seen up on the screen in many months. I was enthralled in every scene of this film.

In two films Cianfrance has been blessed with impressive casts, and everyone raises their game in The Place Beyond the Pines. Gosling is as dynamic as ever, delivering his third hugely memorable performance in just two-and-a-half years. If he could work with Cianfrance and Nicholas Winding Refn (director of Drive, and the upcoming Only God Forgives) forever and ever, the world of cinema would be a better place. These two directors bring out the best in Gosling. And there’s Bradley Cooper, an actor I never imagined I would find in two of my favorite recent films. As great as he was in the first Hangover movie, he came into his own in Silver Linings Playbook last winter, and he delivers just as impressive a performance here, as a cop who many call a hero but has so much guilt on his conscience that he’s having trouble surviving. When it looks like things are going downhill, and fast, for him, Cooper doesn’t hesitate in showing his character’s supreme desperation. Also memorable in the film is Eva Mendes, probably more known as a ravishing beauty than a great actress. Any doubt of her talent is erased here, though, proving once again that a lot of great actors out there who haven’t had the chance to be great just need a director to give them a chance, and a meaty, complex role.

I feel lucky when I see a film released between January and April, typically the dumping ground for studios, that makes me want to rush out of the theater and tell any stranger on the street I can find, “Oh my God, you have to see this movie.” I knew just with the first shot (yes, the very first shot, see below), it was going to be something special. And then, with its great performances, with its unexpected perspective shifts, with Cianfrance’s glorious attention to detail, it became not just something special, but one of the best films of 2013. Don’t miss it!