Flickering Myth

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Second Opinion – The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

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The Place Beyond the Pines, 2012.

Directed by Derek Cianfrance.
Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Ray Liotta, Dane DeHaan, Bruce Greenwood and Ben Mendelsohn.

SYNOPSIS:

A motorcycle student rider finds himself on a collision course with an ambitious cop after taking to robbing banks in order to provide for his lover and their newborn child.


Derek Cianfrance’s follow-up to Blue Valentine has broken critics down into two distinct groups: those that admire its generation-sized ambition and those that baulk at what they feel is overreaching pretension. Our previous reviewer was in the latter camp; I’m in the former. I can’t tell you that you’ll love it as much as I did, but cinema that reaches so far beyond what’s expected and risks ridicule in order to best tell its story just demands to be seen. There will be those that hate it, certainly. But there’ll be many more that absolutely fall for it.

Individually heading up the three chapters in Cianfrance’s decade-and-a-half-spanning triptych, Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Dane DeHaan are all outstanding. Gosling, his history tattooed across his ripped torso, is dangerously magnetic as a desperate father-turned-outlaw, while DeHaan brings a simmering intensity to his loner teen, but it’s Cooper that impresses the most. After brash turns in the likes of The Hangover and Silver Linings Playbook, Cooper is wonderfully controlled as conflicted copper Avery Cross, his striking looks and charismatic public persona betraying a tortured soul, later to be corrupted.
All three are ably complemented by a superb supporting cast, Ben Mendehlson and Emory Cohen in particular, as Luke’s edgy companion and Avery’s volatile son, respectively. Cianfrance’s handling of actors is exemplary – that we already knew after Blue Valentine. But where some ‘indie’ directors can’t make the jump to big filmmaking, Cianfrance has here stepped up his storytelling game considerably. The wider scope, taking in a host of characters and the sprawling pine plains of Schenectady, New York, is a good fit for the director.
Cianfrance again plays with narrative convention after Blue Valentine’s simultaneous love story/breakup story. Here, characters pass the baton of lead role every 45 minutes, with each making an impact on the next in their own way down the years. Pines seems to be about lots of things, among them class, corruption, criminality and clichéd true love, but the film’s insistence on spreading itself thin means they’re all explored in a minor way. It is instead, rather deceptively, one thing (Gosling’s segment is a crime thriller), then another (Cooper’s section is a standard ‘enemy within’ cop drama), before revealing itself to have been about something else – legacy – all along.
The first two acts of Pines are about adrenaline rush and tension – Luke robbing banks in exhilarating one-take tracking shots, Avery going up against menacing cops who may have a desire to snuff him out – before settling on a quietly powerful third act that doesn’t need set pieces anymore. A common criticism of the picture has been that each of its three chapters is lesser than the last. I’d argue the opposite. The butterfly effect is in operation here, with each passing minute seeing the effects of the last come to pass. The decisions of fathers come to influence their sons and split-second decisions make an impact across generations, before the film ends in an immensely satisfying culmination of two hours-plus of high drama.

Gorgeously shot, beautifully edited, grandly scored and flawlessly acted, The Place Beyond the Pines is a big American film, unapologetically so. American cinematic iconography abounds, especially in the characters – there’s the rebel biker, the one honest cop, the angsty adolescent – but nothing feels clichéd under Cianfrance’s raw, honest approach. It’s surprising how well his naturalistic style translates to a larger canvass; he uses intimate moments to form an epic, and the result is a majestic new American classic.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.

Originally published April 16, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.

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