The Place Beyond The Pines Reviews

A difficult to comprehend third act (characters do things that make absolutely no sense) hinders this otherwise masterful effort.

I found this movie confusing. I wasn't sure where it was going. I wasn't sure it knew where it was going. And then it just kept going.

The Place Beyond The Pines is one of those films that starts off quite good, but gets better as the film progresses. This is one of the first great films of the year that showcases some brilliant acting for the cast. Along with Drive, this is Ryan Gosling's best film. The film has a well crafted story that is engaging from start to finish. This is one of the most memorable crime dramas in recent time, and if you're looking for a great film to watch, then this is the film that you should check out. This is one of the first films that easily be seen as a contender for the next Oscars. A motorcycle daredevil sets out to on robbing banks to support for his son. Gosling plays Luke Glanton, the daredevil that supports his family. Gosling delivers in his performance. There are other terrific performances here such as Bradley Cooper and Ray Liotta. This is a near flawless film that is the first worthwhile drama that stands out above others in the genre. This is a well directed film that showcases the talents of a wonderful filmmaker perfectly. This is a stunning piece of cinema that is raw, gritty and downright in your face. This is what a crime film should look like. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and it is surely destined to rank among the finest films in the genre. The Place Beyond the Pines is so far the finest drama of 2013 and is a must see for viewers that have been disappointed with constant trash that have plagued theatres in the past few months. The film's basic, stripped down plot is the strongest aspect of the film combined with immaculate performances that makes this a near flawless picture.

An epic drama that invaded my brain and wouldn't leave. Featuring powerful performances from the whole cast. The Place Beyond The Pines needs to be seen by more people.

Brilliant scenery and powerful acting with a moving, gripping plot makes Place Beyond the Pines the best movie I have seen in a while. This movie is filled with rich themes, making it definitely worth your money.

Schnectady, New York: A town filled with people desperate to get out, corrupt officials, and kids with troubled pasts. It's the kind of town that you would never visit or even pass through unless you had to. The Place Beyond the Pines is a film about this town over a fifteen year span. It is an emotionally draining experience, but not necessarily a fulfilling one. The story's twists and turns are more predictable than director Derek Cianfrance seems to think they are. And just like Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines moves along with a kind of self-importance that often crosses the line from art to pretentiousness. All in all, a watchable film but not one that really requires more than one viewing.

"The Place Beyond the Pines" is a perfect example of a movie that "just might be crazy enough to work." And thanks to two knockout performances from Gosling and Cooper, beautiful cinematography and choreography (not to mention one of the best chase scenes I have ever seen) and an awesome soundtrack, it does indeed work. Its crazy plot structure might baffle some, and the inconsequential, unnecessary middle section may frustrate most, but Cianfrance's intimate epic pulls us through its rougher moments to come out a winner.

Director Derek Cianfrance made a splash with the superb 2010 feature "Blue Valentine," but it is with "The Place Beyond the Pines" that he has delivered one of the best films of this or any other year. It has all the trappings of an instant American classic.

The setup is pure crime cinema. Ryan Gosling's "Luke," a motorcycle/ carnival stuntman finds out he has a son courtesy of estranged fling Romina (Eva Mendes). He quickly discards his life on the road and decides he's not only going to support his infant son in a way his father never did for him, but he'll turn to robbing banks (under the advice and supervision of Robin; Ben Mendelsohn) as a means of doing so. Things soon go from bad to worst as Luke seemingly makes one poor decision after another; sealing his fate and the fate of his bloodline in the process.

There is enough craft and substance in this narrative to support a great movie all it's own, but this is only the groundwork for Cianfrance's multi-generational epic. You won't find a more ambitious movie any time soon. This picture is divided into three parts; the first being the story of Luke (Gosling), the second following a police officer (Bradley Cooper) ridden with guilt and looking to clean up department corruption and pull some strings for personal gain, and the third taking place fifteen years later to which I will not spoil here. Each segment plays different, thematically and stylistically, from the last, but the overall arch is handled masterfully and the story comes together; comes full circle like some of the finest fiction be it in novels or on the screen.

From the filmmaking to the performances, "Pines" is a flawless experience. The film cooks at a relaxed pace... and while this may isolate the more anxious of audiences, it's crucial to the development of narrative. The action is shot so realistically that we don't find it thrilling, but borderline depressing; watching characters find themselves in a situation where escape seems impossible. The blood-pumping moments of other films are played off somber here, and it's brilliant. As for the bulk of the drama, a pitch-perfect ensemble and sensitive direction create an emotional; though not emotionally manipulative amalgam. We are connected to these individuals because they are human; they are flawed, and incredibly well realized.

Of the entire cast, Gosling and Cooper impressed me the most... and Gosling maybe even more so. His character seems to inhabits the same skin as his iconic creation in "Drive" at first, but he is far more complex and vulnerable. The way he plays out the bank robbery scenes in the film is stellar. Cracking voice, stumbling, paranoid; these are some of the most realistically memorable heist scenes in movies, made possible by an actor in top form.

A special kudos to one of my favorite artists of all time, Mike Patton, on the score. His subtle, haunting compositions allow each scene to speak for themselves, and enhances and amplifies their impact at just the right moments. Exactly what every great film score should do.

It's strange having watched "The Place Beyond the Pines" so early in 2013, because it may just be the finest film I'll see all year. It has a reach and vision far beyond almost everything else out there, and though some critics have deemed Cianfrance's lofty ambitions a negative, I wholeheartedly disagree. This is exactly the kind of off kilter storytelling that's sadly lacking at the multiplex these days, so when one like this shows up (however rare), you owe it to yourself to take advantage. "A Place Beyond the Pines" is as perfect as movies get.

A riveting, intense look at parenting and providing for one's family concerning a motorcycle stunt rider (Ryan Gosling) and how he turns to robbing banks to provide for his one-year old son, the cop (Bradley Cooper) who becomes entangled in tracking him down while struggling with police corruption in his facility, and how the two's paths cross in multiple ways. Yet another gem of a film from Derek Cianfrance ("Blue Valentine"), a movie that leaves you with a lot to chew on and talk about, all while providing ample character development and shocking twists and turns in the story. The way it hooks and connects multiple characters is really impressive, all while maintaining a sense of realism despite all the madness. Perhaps the finest hour for Gosling, who is dynamite, and the cast all-around is just excellent (especially little-known actor Ben Mendelsohn as Gosling's wingman in crime). But most importantly, it is a movie that has a lot of good lessons to teach about good people making bad decisions that ultimately end up costing them more than what they could possibly fathom. A terrific, near-masterpiece of a movie whose only flaw is overlength.

Wading through the tepid waters of today's Hollywood blockbusters, I love when an Indie is so undeniably perfect that it makes me fall in love with film all over again. "The Place Beyond the Pines" is one of those movies that will have you asking yourself, "how did the filmmaker do that?" Not just technically, but emotionally as well. The filmmaker in question is one Derek Cianfrance. A filmmaker who rose to notoriety with the terribly overrated "Blue Valentine". But with the help of the writing team of Ben Coccio and Darius Marder, and I mustn't forget a superbly constructed ensemble, including the likes of Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Rose Byrne, Bruce Greenwood and Ray Liotta, Cianfrance has created the best film of the year (so far).
"The Place Beyond the Pines" is a story told in three parts; three storylines which parallel and intersect over and over again in the most breathtaking ways. That said, I don't know how much I can even divulge from each without spoiling this magnificently structured tale of regret. But, here's what I will say:
The first part is what I will refer to as "the Ryan Gosling story" (on paper, the most powerful of the three). From the initial stunning long take where the camera follows Luke (Gosling) a motorcycle stunt rider, as he walks through a carnival, into the opening of a tent, gets on a motorcycle and takes his place as the third man of a motorcycle stunt team, the audience should realize that they are about to see something special. After the show, Luke runs into an old fling named Romina (Mendes) soon discovering that not only has she moved on (she has a new boyfriend) but also that he has fathered an infant son with her, that he never knew about. Soon he takes it upon himself to attempt to take care of his child by illegal means. Yeah, that's right, he becomes a bank robber.
The second story is about Avery (Cooper) a "good cop", who becomes disillusioned when he gets mixed up in a corrupt system, fronted by Ray Liotta and his cronies. Kind of like a better version of "Cop Land". Oh, and Avery also has an infant son.
The third story concerns...well I can't really tell you without spoiling anything. Just know that in this final act (which was my favorite) is where the storylines converge into Greek tragedy proportions. And it's funny because this is the storyline that, on paper, is the weakest of the three and for a moment seems like it's going to fall apart upon the initial reveal; but it doesn't. In fact, it is the two performances from the up and coming Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) and a captivating performance from virtual unknown Emory Cohen (who personally stands as my favorite performance of the film) which carry the final thirty minutes of this movie.
The reason this Triptych format is one of the most well constructed I've ever seen, is simply because audiences don't have to wait until the final act for the stories to converge. The brilliance lies in Cianfrance's ability to cause his three stories to intersect over and over again throughout the entire film. Which leads me to undoubtedly the most interesting factor of this movie; i.e. how it is almost entirely predicated on contrivances. OK, so of course a movie where multiple storylines converge into one is going to have contrivances; contrivances dealing with chance meetings or dealing with introducing major characters in the late second act or early third. But let me tell you, though there are many "chance meeting" contrivances here, Cianfrance, Coccio and Marder have constructed such an airtight script, that nothing seems farfetched or unbelievable for a second.
The Acting: As exceptional as the acting was throughout (yes, even from Eva Mendes) the performance which may steal the show for many, may not be from the actor you think. Not to say Gosling isn't doing his thing here, but Cianfrance isn't the first person to recognize what Gosling can do with a single longing gaze. And basically Gosling, through no fault of his own, puts forth a performance which we (as viewers) are accustomed to seeing. But, Bradley Cooper is simply on another level here, putting forth a stripped down performance, which is in turn the best performance of his career.
Final Thought: As a forewarning, I should state that "The Place Beyond the Pines" is one movie which is meant to put its audiences through the emotional ringer. So if you aren't in the mood for something heavy, then you may want to see "Oblivion" or "Scary Movie 5" or some other mindless piece of crap like that. But if you are in the mood to see a film that will undoubtedly still be on everyone's lips come Oscar season, then this is not a movie to miss. Everybody is different, but when I see a great scene, a scene that engages me fully, a scene which transcends film altogether, it makes me smile. Suffice to say, throughout this film, I was all smiles. That statement leads me to this final question: This movie is so fantastic that even though it's only April, what could possibly come out this year that is going to be better than "The Place Beyond the Pines"?

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland

Follow me on Twitter @moviesmarkus

"The Place Beyond the Pines" is one of those frustrating movies that starts off so promising but eventually falls apart under the weight of its own ambition. Performances by Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Ben Mendelsohn, Bradley Cooper, Emory Cohen and Ray Liotta are all top-notch, as is the directing by Derek Cianfrance, but it feels like Cianfrance wanted to make three movies all at once, and it turns into a never-ending saga of "Once Upon A Time in White Trash Carny Country".

The film opens with a wonderful shot of Luke (Gosling) walking towards the tent of a carnival sideshow. His gig is motorcycle stunt driving, and he enters his bike into a steel cage with two other riders and they begin circling around at death-defying speeds. Afterwards, Luke is signing autographs and is paid a visit by an old flame (Eva Mendes). It turns out the one night stand from about a year ago has resulted in unexpected parenthood. Luke is all about the ladies, with his bleach blonde hair and a tattoo across his neck which reads "heartthrob", but he seems willing to give up a life on the road to settle down into fatherhood for his little baby son. When he learns he has a rival for the family's affection, he and his very dirty partner (Mendelsohn) take to robbing banks, ostensibly as a means of providing for the family, but it soon becomes clear that Luke gets that same "steel cage rush" from evading police. It's a dangerous game that leads him rushing headlong into officer Avery (Cooper), a rookie cop with poor decision skills. It doesn't help that he belongs to a quintessentially-movie corrupt police force. Avery has a conscience, sort of, and that makes him a liability to his superiors, in particular detective Deluca (Liotta). Avery seems to want to do the right thing, but he wants to make himself look good in the process and, ehhh... cut to many years later, and Avery's son and Luke's son are both seniors attending the same high school and getting high together. Neither of the kids is very interesting. Both seem bent on some form of self-destruction, and nobody seems happy. Nobody has any points to make and everyone just sort of fumbles towards some forgone conclusion. The end.

I felt the movie grew progressively less interesting and more predictable with each chapter, and the film's points (pre-determinism except when it's not, or something about your brain being genetically hard-wired to behave a certain way, that is, unless your daddy doesn't pay enough attention to you, then it's HIS fault) are dubious. The lesson here is "don't lie to your kid", but you probably should already know that anyway. It's sad, because "The Place Beyond the Pines" is great and glorious and epic in it's way, but the muddle of predictability the plot falls into towards the end leaves me feeling overall dissatisfied. A shame.

A completely potent, if not heavy, epic of fathers and sons. Cianfrance's 'A Place Beyond the Pines' feels honest, brutal, and merciless, but mostly because his actors' make it so. Gosling and Cooper carry the entire film's weight, accelerating the film from a mediocre drama to one of the best you'll see so far this year.

Ryan Gosling and Dane DeHaan are terrific.

this is a great film. atmospheric, well written crime saga. i loved the characters, and the separation of the three acts as unique angles of the larger story. there were two things in the third act that really felt out of place for me, almost too typical for crime stories when the rest of the film was so atypical, but overall i really enjoyed it.

Fabulous. The story was absolutely real and wonderfully original. And a word about the actors: Ryan Gosling is like a cross between James Dean and Dustin Hoffman, that is he can do anything and looks great doing it. Bradley Cooper is stunning as the cop caught in a Chinese finger puzzle and Ben Mendelsohn is pitch perfect. Eva Mendes is wonderful. Just a great movie.

The scope of Cianfrance's follow-up to ''Blue Valentine'' may be larger than that film, but the director still has the ability to create engrossing characters and produce outstanding performances from his actors. Gosling gives one of his best performances and Cooper shows why his Oscar nomination for ''Silver Linings Playbook'' was no fluke. The cinematography, editing, music and direction are all pitch perfect but what makes Cianfrance's third feature so special is the themes it tackles and the way Cianfrance chooses to tackle them. There are many opportunities where the film could fall apart but Cianfrance structres the film in very assured fashion and never comes close to losing the audience. ''The Place Beyond the Pines'' is a surprising, sprawling and thought-provoking tale of old and young generations and what happens when certain people's morality is put to the test.

"The Place Beyond The Pines" is one of the best films I have seen in years. Filled with symbolism and meaningful truths, this film accomplishes what almost every film nowadays, fails to do, which is making the audience believe that everything that is happening on screen, could, and does happen somewhere in the world. Character archetypes are explored to the fullest, as the story progresses through three perfect acts, introducing new characters to the film in every one, and making them mean something to it. I have never been so connected to people in a film before. I was rooting for each and every character, because anything could happen to them at any moment, and the film was not afraid of doing that. This is not your average crime/thriller, it is a journey through the lives of families. With beautiful direction, spectacular performances, and a script that the actors practically live, this is one of the best films I have ever seen in my life. This film has everything I have ever asked for from a film, and more. I have never called a film perfect before, but "The Place Beyond The Pines," which has the most symbolic title I have ever read in my life, is without a doubt, a perfect film, inside and out. I was left in tears!

"The Place Beyond the Pines" represents something of a step back for filmmaker Derek Cianfrance. His first feature, "Blue Valentine" (2010), starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, a near-masterpiece in my book, was so good and audacious that Cianfrance must have felt terrible anxiety about his follow-up.

One's greatest fear after a major success, of course, is that you won't be able to wow people again. You fear you'll be a one-hit wonder. The bad news is that "The Place Beyond the Pines" is inferior to "Valentine." It is nowhere near as innovative or trenchant as the previous film.

But the good news is that "Pines" isn't terrible -- far from it. At its best, "Pines" is beautifully elegiac, tough, and soul-searching. It is one of the better films of the year, probably the best film of 2013 so far. There is also a stunner of a supporting performance from a young actor named Emory Cohen, who plays the teenage son of Bradley Cooper's character. Cohen gives Gosling a run for his money in the acting department. Take note of Mr. Cohen's name. You heard it here first. He may be the next Ryan Gosling.

"Pines" is good enough to allay any fears that Cianfrance will be a one-hit wonder. He will surely have a rich and long career as one of America's best and most interesting filmmakers. But it can't be denied that there is some cause for concern. While it has many great elements, "Pines" at its worst (especially in its last 30 minutes) veers into melodrama, even bordering on soap opera.

Yes, the last part of the film includes Emory Cohen's jaw-droppingly wonderful performance, but it also contains some gooey soap opera. Cianfrance has to figure out why the project came off the rails in the end. He needs to retool himself by thinking carefully about the difference between drama and melodrama.

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"Pines" is a triptych, with three discrete but inter-related stories told chronologically. Part of the film's underwhelming quality is its artless editing. This happens, then this happens, then this happens. A, B, then C. A little flat. This is a startling contrast to the sumptuously artistic and yet somehow under-stated editing in "Blue Valentine," where Cianfrance intercut between two time periods organically and beautifully. I can still remember some of the breathtaking cross-cuts in "Valentine."

In Story 1 Ryan Gosling, returning to work with Cianfrance after their triumph with "Valentine," plays a tattooed, bleached-blond, semi-educated mechanic earning subsistence wages as a stunt cyclist in a dilapidated traveling carnival. When we meet him at the start of the film, he and the carnival are in the middle of nowhere in Upstate New York.

(Officially it's Schenectady, which is near Albany, but it could be anywhere. The word Schenectady, incidentally, is based on the original Mohawk name for the area, and it would be translated as The Place Beyond the Pines.)

A former girlfriend of the cyclist (played reasonably well by Eva Mendes) stops by the carnival to see him. When he shows up unannounced the following day at her house, he gets the surprise of his life. I won't say what the surprise is, but I'll say that it is a plot turn you've seen a million times before. A hundred million. While it's familiar, it's not without pathos. There's a reason this story element has been used so much: it cuts to the heart of human longing.

The focus of Story 1 is his attempt to deal with this surprise and how deeply it affects him. It leads him to commit several crimes. Suddenly that story comes to a violent end, involving a police officer, played well by Bradley Cooper. Cooper's growth into a serious dramatic actor has been a joy to watch these past couple years. I love how much he has defied expectations, much the way Mark Wahlberg did 10 years ago.

Story 2 focuses on this cop and his grief over the violence that brought Story 1 to an end. He becomes embroiled in a police-corruption case, where he is the star witness against his fellow officers. This is the first moment when "Pines" starts to lose some control of itself. The corruption seems like it's coming in from some other movie. Although it is filmed effectively, with Ray Liotta in a small but commanding performance as the precinct's poisonous ring leader, this is the point at which "Pines" starts to feel bloated with too many story elements.

The police corruption also gives the film a simplistic, melodramatic good-versus-bad quality, contrasting Gosling's law-breaker with Cooper's saintly do-gooder. This gave the middle of the film an obvious, sentimental quality that was a little disappointing. But the Cooper story is interesting, and one can palpably feel how much courage it took for this young officer to stand up to his entire police precinct. It was genuinely heroic, if a bit simple as a story.

"Pines" then jumps forward 15 years for Story 3. Gosling's and Cooper's sons are in the same high school and both doing drugs. When they meet each other for the first time, they bond immediately and spend an entire day together. They also end up in jail later that night.

I don't want to reveal all the plot details. I'll just say that Cooper is very disturbed to learn that his son has befriended Gosling's son. To me this was the most interesting aspect of the film. It seems that Cooper loves Gosling's son more than he loves his own son! This flip of affections from one boy to another is fascinating and disturbing. What makes Emory Cohen's performance so extraordinary is that you see glimmers of it in his eyes, without there being a single word of dialogue stating it outright. You see a crushed boy who knows his father doesn't love him.

Unfortunately the film doesn't devote much attention to this and gets distracted by Gosling's son, who wanders around in a fog of bitterness and recrimination that feels more predictable than interesting. When violence ensues in the end, I began rolling my eyes. The film had stopped contemplating anything by that point and began to drown in gunfire and soap-opera cliches.

There's a lot to love about "Pines," and it's very much worth seeing. I am eager to see where Cianfrance goes from here and excited to see how Emory Cohen develops as an actor.