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How entertaining? ★★★★★
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 4 April 2013
This article is a review of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES.
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“I never like guns man, they’re vulgar,” Robin (Ben Mendelsohn)
Wow! THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES blew me away. I didn't think BLUE VALENTINE would be bettered, but the director has taken heartbreak to saga level. Opening with the tattooed bare torso of Ryan Gosling (the filmmakers clearly understanding what will help to sell the movie immediately to his ardent female fan base), playing with a switchblade, before heading out into a travelling fairground where he is, self-referentially, the star attraction. Gosling’s Luke is a motorcyclist extraordinaire, performing gravity-challenging displays with two others. Waiting for him outside is a dowdied-down (but remaining a dreamboat of course) Eva Mendes. Her Romina, even though with someone else now, is still smitten after their brief love affair the year before when he passed through. This relatively innocuous encounter sets in motion a propinquity epic that crosses generations.
Wow! THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES blew me away. I didn't think BLUE VALENTINE would be bettered, but the director has taken heartbreak to saga level. Opening with the tattooed bare torso of Ryan Gosling (the filmmakers clearly understanding what will help to sell the movie immediately to his ardent female fan base), playing with a switchblade, before heading out into a travelling fairground where he is, self-referentially, the star attraction. Gosling’s Luke is a motorcyclist extraordinaire, performing gravity-challenging displays with two others. Waiting for him outside is a dowdied-down (but remaining a dreamboat of course) Eva Mendes. Her Romina, even though with someone else now, is still smitten after their brief love affair the year before when he passed through. This relatively innocuous encounter sets in motion a propinquity epic that crosses generations.
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BLUE VALENTINE was about the birth and dying embers of a marriage. Told without sentiment, it was a sucker punch to the guts to all other modern relationship flicks. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is an exploration of the difficult to articulate bond between father and eldest son. We are not in Greek tragedy or Freudian psychosexual territory; instead it is a look at mutual expectation and duty. That’s the microcosm. The macrocosm is about a patriarchal justice system prone to corruption at worst, self-serving ambition at best – a pessimistic portrayal, but wholly believable.
Luke wants to stick around to be with Romina, but as the man he feels it is his responsibility to provide for them. Quitting his travelling job, his skillset is limited, and quickly comes into the sphere of Robin, who encourages him to collaborate on daring bank robberies (done in one camera takes cinematography–lovers) involving motorcycle dexterity. After one raid, we witness an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. The latter is rookie patrolman cop, and lawyer, Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). And the film spins off into a different direction. For Cooper fans, it is 45 minutes until the audience encounter him. Now holding one of your leads from the viewer for that long takes massive nerve. When was the last time that significantly happened? Sean Connery in INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE?
Operating outside the law is not only the preserve of the criminal in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, but the judicial system and its fallibilities and politicking is delved into. Not in a Sidney Lumet way, examining disease-ridden institutions, but intimately. Characterisation is the focus, people reflecting processes, and processes showing the mettle of people.
Deeply moving and adroitly executed, Derek Cianfrance has now cemented himself as a must-watch director.
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