The Place Beyond the Pines

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After watching the trailers for this film I was super-excited to see it. The cast is brilliant, the director is brilliant, but unfortunately the storyline was poorer than I could even imagine. At first, I thought we'd see an interesting story about a carny' turned bank robber but Ryan Gosling dies about half-way through without making any sort of impact on the viewers or even the story-line as a whole. Secondly Bradly Cooper is introduced and remains the protagonist for the remainder of the film but, similarly to Gosling, doesn't earn the viewers sympathy or even attention as we see a stereotypical 'cop catching bad guy' routine. Finally we see the paths of both Gosling and Coopers sons cross to finish the film on a poor low. The only non-cliché'd surprise is that in the end *Spoiler* one son didn't actually kill the other as we were led to believe. I literally cared so much towards the end that I can't even remember who's son done what. Had I not been on a date, I would have left roughly about an hour and a half in. Overall a disappointing film that had all the makings of a masterpiece but falls, incredulously, short. I wouldn't recommend watching this film. I'd put the 'let-down' somewhere below that of Gangster Squad (2012, Gosling).

Gosling once again signs up for a project unbecoming his talents in a drag of a film strung together from weak thematic clichés. With a bit of this and a bit of that, the movie tries to cover multiple generations of bad upbringing, corruption and the consequences of these. But there is nothing really convincing here and certainly not something you haven't already seen a thousand times before in the many productions covering the very same ideas. The film simply lacks focus, likable characters, a point and fails to provide an incentive during the lengthy running time to care about whatever outcome the movie might bring. 30/100

The place beyond the pines was a bold and magnificent effort by filmmaker Derek Cianfrance. The movie is set with three major acts. The first focuses on Ryan Gosling, a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to robbing banks to support his new born child. This first act was executed with excellence. Gosling's character is a joy to watch, the soundtrack is phenomenally executed and the cinematography is so beautiful, not to mention Gosling's partner in crime also manages to give an outstanding performance. The second act focuses on Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop trying to move up the ranks with a family of his own. The second act was also executed with utter brilliance. Cooper's acting was beyond brilliant, his best yet in my opinion (including his recent Silver Linings Playbook). Cooper deserves to be rewarded for his beyond excellent portrayal of a good cop merely trying to fulfill his duties in a corrupt police department trying to profit from proceeds of crime. Cooper's conflict with the corrupt detective (Ray Liotta) is tension filled and a joy to watch. The third act focuses on the son's of both Cooper and Gosling, who have both grown up to become teenagers. This is by far the weakest act in the movie in my opinion. Although I would rate this act as "good" of itself, it simply felt like it detracted from the overall viewing experience of the phenomenal first two acts. Although it seems the overarching purpose of the movie was to demonstrate the impact fatherhood (or lack of) has on kids, I felt that this last act was simply unnecessary. The place beyond the pines was set to be an exceptional experience with the first two acts if it was tied up there, but the attempt to install the third act went too far. The attempt to demonstrate the impact fatherhood (or lack of) has on kids felt too rushed for it to have sufficient impact on me. The first two acts of themselves were extraordinary and the movie should have been left there! It didn't need to be stretched out to achieve some extended purpose sought out by the director. Nevertheless, what we have are two excellent acts and one good one, which, in my opinion, would equate the movie to a "very good" viewing experience (as opposed to "excellent", "extraordinary" or "top of the range"). In my final opinion, I would highly recommend this movie for the first two acts alone. PS I might also add that the introduction of Cooper's cop character Avery has to be one of the best introductions ever! It was so subtle and realistic. I loved it!

This movie has excellent cinematography and great camera work and famous actors. that is it. I wish i could talk to the director and just figure out what the hell he was thinking. The first story of Ryan gosling as the bank robber was excellent.(the first 45 minutes) the second story of Bradley Cooper exposing corruption within his police department was decent, the idea certainly had potential. And the last story of their two kids meeting had little potential but still could have been an alright movie. When all three are combined, it is nothing but irrelevant wasted potential. Ultimately this movie dies with Lives and Dies by Ryan Gosling. I walked out of the theater angry that i was so manipulated by a near perfect movie trailer. The idea of Ryan Gosling as a bank robber is now wasted and Bradley cooper as a good cop among bad cops is ruined. And for the record, there is no "Place Beyond the Pines" it has nothing at all to do with the movie, its just a good marketing title to manipulate people into wasting their money on this disappointment of a movie.

If there is a more cliché-ridden film of the last 20 years, I'm not sure I know what it is. This was predictable crap from beginning to end. You know what it really is? It's a stealth chick flick, and a horrible one at that... just like Cianfranco's last "masterpiece," "Blue Valentine." That vapid piece of banality stretched my patience to the breaking point. "Pines" found that breaking point and chopped it up into tiny pieces. How dare he waste my time like that!!! Oh sure, Cianfranco is commenting on the "sins of the fathers" motif, right down to showing the heart throb/cycling daredevil/bank robber's" baby being baptized. But the sin never washed off... of either son. The cop-lawyer ends up with Vinny Barbarino for a kid, and the biker ends up with Kurt Cobain. Of course, you knew they would meet up and the sparks would fly. And they did as expected. Actually, I half expected to see Ray Liotta's kid waiting for both Kurt and the cop/attorney in that forest, so he could take revenge on both idiots. I was hoping Kurt would kill Vinny, kill his father, burn down the house, blow up the neighborhood, and deliver the coup d' grace to himself. Then, you would have had a film ending worthy of Sergio Leone. But, no such luck. I will remember who Cianfranco is now and avoid his work like it was nuclear waste.

The Place Beyond The Pines tells a unique, compelling story in a way that I have never seen before. This movie kept me interested from start to finish. It is far from traditional storytelling. The story is split into three sections all very different from each other. I enjoyed each section of the movie almost equally, but the first hour of the movie is definitely the strongest. The movie may be slow to some, but I was invested in the story from start to finish. This is the best I've seen Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, no doubt. There are no bad performances but Cooper and Gosling's stand out the most. Dane Dehaan plays an important role and does a great job of it. Dehaan is definitely a rising star. The tone of this movie is incredible, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good drama. It is the best movie I have seen this year, and with the breakthrough performances throughout, this is a movie you're not going to want to miss.

The first section holds promise of a tense thriller as Ryan Gosling gets addicted to robbing banks and using his motorbike riding skills to escape at high speed until...... The second section focuses on Bradley Cooper's cop, hailed as a hero but who finds it a mixed blessing carrying both danger but also opportunities worth exploiting. Once the headline appears on screen 'Fifteen Years later', we are in the third section and it's here that the film completely falls apart. The story becomes melodramatic and utterly predictable; the coincidences and plot contrivances are just ridiculous.To make matters worse we are served up a load of cod-psychology about fathers and sons. If only the director had stuck to making a solid thriller without all the pretentious overtones, this would've been a really good movie.