It's a well-known fact that for "serious" moviegoers, the first three months of the year are threadbare. A complex, sublime drama like The Place Beyond the Pines is typically reserved for the end-of-the-year Oscar rush. So a big thank you goes out to Focus Features for releasing director Derek Cianfrance's (Blue Valentine) movie in March (with an April expansion) so that those with more refined tastes have something to gnaw on. This is a powerful, engrossing drama about the sins of fathers being passed on to the sons, and while it follows the three-act structure to a "T," the path the narrative takes is anything but typical.
The first third of the movie focuses on daredevil motorcycle rider Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling), whose life is dramatically altered when he discovers he fathered a son with a Schenectady, New York-based waitress named Romina (Eva Mendes). Wanting to avoid repeating his own father's negligence, Luke quits his carnival gig and seeks more money by getting a job working for local mechanic (Ben Mendelshohn). But the job is minimum wage, and Luke discovers he can give his son the life he deserves by robbing banks and utilizing his impressive getaway skills.
The second third shifts to police officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), who is hailed as a hero after thwarting an armed robbery. He's a law-school graduate who joined the police force to fight injustice, but he receives a rude awakening on how deep the corruption runs in his own unit. He has an infant son of his own, albeit while married to the strong, supportive Jennifer (Rose Byrne), and his conscience ultimately places him in a logjam where he must choose between easy money and the moral high ground.
Finally, there are two high school kids, AJ (Emory Cohen) and Jason (Dane DeHaan), who form a friendship based on Jason's drug-dealer contacts and AJ's ability to score cash. As expected, the relationship between these two is a roller coaster ride, filled with the thrill of doing the taboo while also undergoing some rocky interpersonal conflict. The two share a secret that the audience is fully aware of but both have yet to uncover.
For a movie like The Place Beyond the Pines to work, one has to accept the dramatic license Cianfrance takes with regards to coincidences and cause-and-effect. It's a little like Paul Haggis' Crash, but this is a better developed motion picture with just the right number of characters to avoid spreading each story too thin. Needless to say, I bought it. Both Glanton and Cross decide on actions which they believe are right for their children, but despite their best intentions, they can't avoid the inevitability of mistakes repeating and drama begetting drama. The final third of The Place Beyond the Pines is frought with tension and is emotionally satisfying in bringing the threads together.
The Place Beyond the Pines also deserves a lot of credit for addressing a side of police work one rarely finds in movies. When a cop is hailed as a hero in spite of taking another man's life, how does he cope? Cross is obviously more ambitious and righteous than many of his colleagues, but the inner struggle over morality dominates his mind far more than the pride of saving the day and representing his town. Some facts he learns about the person he killed will have most viewers asking the same questions he does.
The Place Beyond the Pines is an acting goldmine. For most of the movie's first third, Ryan Gosling is in full Drive mode-- not a bad thing at all given how mesmerizing he was in that movie-- but this character has a lot more humanity in him, and it's not a stretch to say that some viewers will be rooting for him in spite of his illegal activities. Bradley Cooper once again continues to expand his range; he has the most screen time of everyone and is most key to the drama working as effectively as it does. He received a deserved Oscar nomination for Silver Linings Playbook, but it's possible to argue he's even better here. The rest of the cast is as solid as ever, although more scenes with Mahershala Ali (who plays Jason's surrogate father, Kofi) would've helped immeasurably since the few scenes he has bring out an interesting question about how adolescents process the idea of a good surrogate father versus an absentee "real" father.
Cianfrance's movie ends on the perfect note, an often-repeated and symbolic shot of a motorcycle driving into the horizon, that provides the ideal mix of closure with a little ambiguity left over to chew on. The Place Beyond the Pines is everything a compelling movie should be; at 140 minutes, it's lengthy, but the time passes so quickly that many will wish there were more minutes to come. All three acts command the thoughtful viewer's attention, and while the movie's sharp change of main character part-way through will disorient some, it is arguably Cianfrance's masterstroke. The Place Beyond the Pines is guaranteed to send viewers away in a reflective mood as they ponder just how close to home this story hits. 2013 has a long way to go, but this one will stay with me.
Rating: ***1/2 out of ****
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