The Place Beyond the Pines

While in Schenectady, New York, a tattoo laden, bleach blonde sideshow stunt rider (Ryan Gosling) discovers he's fathered a son with a woman (Eva Mendez) he had a fling with and decides to take desperate measures to provide for him. Meanwhile, a diligent beat cop (Bradley Cooper) becomes a local hero following an act of bravery, but finds himself a pawn for departmental corruption. "The Place Beyond the Pines", Derek Cianfrance's follow-up to "Blue Valentine", is an ambitious film with a completely bloated, trite, and pedestrian screenplay. Again underplaying his hand as a sociopathic existentialist, Gosling is entirely uninteresting and I'm not sure exactly what he's trying to achieve. On the other, Cooper is quite good in his segment as were Ray Liotta and Ben Mendelsohn in key supporting performances. The film also features some nice stunt work and photography, but by the time I realized the epilogue was actually a third act, I was ready to scream, "Enough already!!!" and walk out of the theater.