Aylmer to Zazzoo and Beyond: The Place Beyond The Pines

Saturday, April 20, 2013

The Place Beyond The Pines - Review

The Place Beyond The Pines
(2013 - March 29)
Crime | Drama
2 hr. 20 min.

Rated: R Very strong language throughout, some graphic violence, teen drug and alcohol use, and sexuality. Common Sense Media says Iffy for 16+ Read more (I personally would not subject a 16 year old to this film)
Grade: B+

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes | See full cast and crew

The highly anticipated new drama from director Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine") powerfully explores the consequences of motorcycle rider Luke's (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) fateful decision to commit a crime to support his child. The incident renders him targeted by policeman Avery (Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Cooper), and the two men become locked on a tense collision course which will have a devastating impact on both of their families in the years following. (c) Focus

Budget: $15 Million

Box Office: $6,725,100 (Worldwide as of 18 April, 2013). Critics have praised the film as have the audiences that have seen it. It just hasn't been seen by that may people, toned down language probably would have generated a larger audience and box office.

Watching The Place Beyond The Pines is not a pleasant experience and it most definitely isn't for everyone. The characters for the most part are not sympathetic or at all admirable, portraying one failed life after another. There is, however, a little something about Ryan Gosling's screen presence as Luke that draws you in and makes empathize, encourages you to root for him to succeed, to changing his life, there is something compelling, something attractive about this looser, like there's a 'boy next door' just under the surface that is still reachable. His performance in this film is perhaps the best of his career, but 99% of the characters in this film, and that includes Luke, are simply conscience and 'moral-free'.

The language is extremely coarse and onerous, and reflective of the baseless lives of the characters portrayed but I thinks there are ways to express that point without lying down in that very same gutter. Without the profanity the film could have reached a much broader audience, and consequently earned a much bigger box office.

Life in this town is depressing, rudderless and seemingly void of hope. I really was not looking forward to seeing The Place Beyond The Pines. I don't think pleasantly surprised would be the appropriate term but I was in deed surprised by how intriguing the film was. It's a bit like an accident...you don't really want to see the carnage but once you get a glimpse it's hard to look away. These people are the ones that your parents warned you as a child to steer clear of. They are products of the failed post 50s educational system that threw God and morals under the bus in pursuit of the so called, modern, enlightened, secular humanism and a pagan mythological Gaia centric environmentalism. In short, these people are troubled, aimless and Godless, their human misery is none the less tragic and compelling.

The Place Beyond The Pines is a three act story of how a bad decision can destroy your life and the devastating impact it can have on all of those around you, the Domino effect, a story of how the sins of the fathers will be visited upon their children. It is gritty and harsh, in some aspects like last year's People Like Us, the difference between the two is that this time the acting is up to the task. The performances by Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper are truly first rate.

Act I revolves around Luke the Ryan Gosling character and his life choices; Act II focuses on Avery the Bradley Cooper character an his life choices; and Act III reaping the fruit of these two trees, lays bare the lives of the sons of these two men.

I recommend it with reservations: The performances are excellent and it is well made storytelling, if you want to take a peek into the belly of the beast, but it is harsh, gritty and you are subjected to lots of F words. Act I is filled with profanity, anger, violence and futility; Act II is filled with corruption with a slight reprieve from the language, violence, betrayal and futility; Act III returns to the profanity and wallows in teen angst, drugs, drinking, sexuality, hatred, revenge and futility.

If you don't think you can sit through the language (something I hate, one of my movie pet peeves) you will probably want to pass on this one.

The Story: Luke Glanton (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is a motorcycle stunt rider they call Heart Throb. On his motorcycle it says 'Handsome Luke' but his good looks are marred by cheap, tacky, tasteless tattoos, the epitome of 'white trash'. He's a high-octane motorcycle stunt performer, in constant motion, traveling from town to town with the carnival. While passing through upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover in Schenectady, Romina (Eva Mendes). He is surprised to learn that in his two year absence she has given birth to his son Jason (Dane DeHaan). Luke decides to quit the carnival and forsake life on the road in order to become a stand-up dad and provide for his new found family, of course it doesn't matter to Luke that Romina has a new man in her life, Kofi (Mahershala Ali), who is raising Jason as his own.

Luke turns to Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), an auto repair shop owner, for part-time employment as he continuously attempts to insert himself into his son’s life but minimum wage doesn't cut it, Luke asks Robin for more money. Robin says there is a way, he reveals that he was once a bank robber, and suggests they partner to hit some banks in the area. The team perform some successful heists, in which Luke performs the robbery, uses his motorbike to getaway and drives it into an unmarked truck driven by Robin. Luke uses the new money to win back Romina’s trust and visits her, her mother and his infant son at the home of Romina’s new partner, Kofi. Kofi’s end up having a confrontation which results in Luke’s arrest for assault after he hits Kofi in the head with a wrench.

Robin bails him out of jail and Luke immediately wants to resume robbing banks. Robin refuses, not wanting to press their luck, and the two have a falling-out that results in Robin dismantling the motorbike to put an end to it. Luke takes back the bail money he owed Robin at gunpoint. Luke attempts to rob another bank on his own but that decision puts him on a collision course with Officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). Luke is pursued by police falls off his bike during the chase and seeks refuge in a nearby home, Averys follows him into the house and Luke realizes he is trapped, sensing defeat, he locks himself in a bedroom upstairs and calls Romina. Just before Avery confronts him, Luke asks Romina not to tell their child about who he was.

In Act 2 the narrative switches to Avery Cross an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by the menacing and corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). Avery is just starting to balance his professional and family life with wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ (Emory Cohen), when fate forced him into the confrontation with Luke, the full consequences of this meeting will reverberate into the next generation. It is then, in the final Act, that the two sons, Jason and AJ, will face their fateful, shared legacy inherited from their fathers.