The Place Beyond the Pines
Directed by Derek Cianfrance
Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
with Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes
2012
People who are hoping for a stylish, Gosling-filled crime thriller are going to be as disappointed as those who watched Blue Valentine hoping for a mushy, Gosling-filled love-in. Re-uniting the star with Blue Valentine’s director, Derek Cianfrance, The Place Beyond the Pines is a highly ambitious, intergenerational drama presented with a hefty splash of social commentary. Ryan Gosling plays Luke Glanton, a semi-itinerant motorcycle stuntman who returns to his hometown of Schenectady, New York to find he has a baby by a past lover, Romina (Eva Mendes). Though determined to contribute to his son’s upbringing, he has difficulty making enough money to support himself, let alone his child, and ends up being persuaded to perform bank robberies with a friend. These robberies lead to a run-in with rookie cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), about the same age and also with a small son. Their meeting has a huge effect on both their lives, and from then on the film’s focus begins to drift, first over Cross himself, and then on to the two men’s offspring, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), and how their lives are affected by the actions of their fathers.
Given the lengthy, chopped narrative, Cianfrance has to paint in fairly broad strokes, so the social commentary is a little simplistic and any points the film is trying to make are dry well before the routine ending. It's also very predictable, yet in a way that’s soobvious, for example the chance meeting of the two sons, that it feels less like a lack of imagination and more a deliberate lack of concern. Arguing that the plot doesn’t surprise you would be like complaining about how predictable it is that Jason and AJ are messed-up individuals; one of the main concerns in the film is social mobility, and so the sense that these boys are traveling down some form of pre-determined path is oddly appropriate, even if it would have been laudable for Cianfranco to find a way of doing so in a more interesting way. I’m going to single out the film’s depiction of the ageing process for criticism, as after a fifteen-year gap the only adult character who seems to have aged at all is Romina, and this is specifically because she’s had such a hard time bringing up her son. Bradley Cooper just seems to lose a little weight, despite a presumably highly-pressured job.
What I enjoyed about the film was the details, the touching quieter scenes and the strong supporting characters a result of Cianfranco’s ability to conjure depth from a few well-chosen moments, and a fairly great cast. Gosling and Cooper may seem a little A-list for what’s meant to be a challenging, meaningful film, but the former is ultimately more of an off-screen presence than on-screen, and the latter is continuing a well-advised move into playing characters that are actually intended to be not-entirely likeable. Eva Mendes makes the most of the only prominent female role – she’s good even though her character is mainly there through necessity; Rose Byrne unfortunately gets swallowed up by the essential maleness of the film. Emory Cohen, as the spoilt AJ, gives one of those performances that are so dickish that you can only be impressed, and pray he’s not just playing himself. The Place Beyond the Pines isn’t the sweeping epic it tries to be, but it’s by no means a failure.
Tom
