The Place Beyond the Pines
★★★★
Dir: Derek Cianfrance
(2013)
Derek Cianfrance's sprawling triptych of a film is certainly an ambitious follow-up to his heartbreaker par excellence Blue Valentine; This is a finely acted and beautifully shot morality tale which consumes two families over the course of more than fifteen years. Sagging slightly in the middle despite a fantastic performance from Bradley Cooper, the films bookending tales are when The Place Beyond the Pines is at it's best with a typically tight-lipped performance from Ryan Gosling as a bank robbing motorcycle rider and from Chronicle quiet kid Dane DeHaan as a high-schooler uncovering the truth.
Opening with an uncut shot, following Gosling's driver Luke into a motorcycle ball of death stunt for the fair ground he travels with is surely a note of intent from the director and his writers Ben Coccio and Darus Marder. There will be trouble a foot. When an old flame (played bitingly by Eva Mendes) arrives and turns the tattooed loner's life upside down with some paternal news, Luke choses to stick around and take up an unorthodox job with fellow engine head Robin played with the usual brilliant zest by Aussie Ben Mendelsohn. Soon enough Cooper's corruption busting cop Avery is tragically involved and The Place Beyond the Pines surges forward into a generation spanning story of guilt and revenge of a different note.
This is certainly a rewarding film packed with flavour of the moment acting chops and it is remarkably well-balanced considering the three stories and the 15 year gap which separates much more than points of time in the films final episode. Cianfrance is a fine actor's director, there's not a single forced performance here and even though the long running time takes its toll slightly the whole thing, for the most part, has a brisk enveloping feeling to it. After the chronologically demanding Blue Valentine he seems still obsessed with illustrating what time can do to anyone and how that old myth about it healing old wounds might be a little bit of a reach for his characters.
Not quite reaching the interlocking mastery of Alejandro González Iñárritu's first burst of films or the moral complexity of Krystof Kieslowski's genius, The Place Beyond the Pines is certainly influenced by both but remains highly enjoyable on its own terms; A powerful and subtly surprising film. Wonderful performances, some great photography by legend in the making, Sean Bobbit and a tingling bracingly atmospheric score by the bonafide legend, Mike Patton, gives us more than enough reason to head out beyond the pines.
