The Place Beyond the Pines
2012, Crime/Drama, 2h 20m
226 Reviews 50,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
Ambitious to a fault, The Place Beyond the Pines finds writer/director Derek Cianfrance reaching for -- and often grasping -- thorny themes of family, fatherhood, and fate. Read critic reviews
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Cast & Crew
Luke
Avery
Romina
Jennifer
Robin
Kofi
News & Interviews for The Place Beyond the Pines
Critic Reviews for The Place Beyond the Pines
Audience Reviews for The Place Beyond the Pines
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Feb 14, 2016This film features outstanding performances, dark tone while at the same time having beautiful shots, well written plot and having this unpredictability that brings out the thrills. Check out this gem as soon as you can!Mr N Super Reviewer
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Feb 06, 2016It's a really good story, with a fine cast, but the ace in the hole is that it's completely unpredictable.Marcus W Super Reviewer
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Aug 10, 2015The connection between the characters is pretty interesting and executed well. Sadly the second half is not quite as engaging as the first, up until the somewhat anti-climatic solution. That may be realistic but feels a bit like the movie was going nowhere. Overall, the great acting and cinematography make it worth your while, though.Jens S Super Reviewer
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Nov 14, 2013Ambitious filmmaking is welcome, but usually ambition leads somewhere, which is the main problem with co-writer and director Derek Cianfrance's unwieldy 140-minute multi-generational crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines. First we watch Luke (Ryan Gosling) as a traveling motorcyclist enter a life of crime to support his infant son. Next the focus shifts to Avery (Bradley Cooper) as a cop with a conscience running into corruption on the force. Last, we jump ahead into the future and watch the dramatic irony unfold as the children of Avery and Luke interact, waiting for them to learn their paternal connection. I believe Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) and his team was attempting to tell a meditative, searching drama about children paying for the sins of their fathers, the lingering fallout of bad decisions and moral compromises. Except that's not this film. By the end of the movie, while some secrets have been laid bare, there really aren't any significant consequences. The film does an excellent job of maintaining a sense of dread, but it doesn't come to anything larger or thought provoking. The entire structure of this film is geared toward a tragic accumulation, but it just doesn't materialize. That's a shame because it's got great acting through and through, though I have grown weary of Gosling's taciturn antihero routine that seems like a rut now. Avery's portion of the plot was the most interesting and anxiety-inducing, but I found the movie interesting at every turn. The characters are given pockets of nuance and ambiguity as they traverse similar paths of desperation and conciliation. The Place Beyond the Pines is a perfectly good movie, albeit disjointed, that cannot amount to the larger thematic impact it yearns for. Nate's Grade: B-Nate Z Super Reviewer
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