The Place Beyond the Pines centers around a few different storylines involving different characters. The first story centers around, a motorcyclist named, Luke Glanton (played by Ryan Gossling), who soon meets up with an former lover, Romina (played Eva Mendes), and finds out he has a son that she never told him about. In respond to this, Luke quites his job, as he wants to provide and be there for his son, even though Romina doesn't want him too. Luke, soon goes to a repair shop owner named, Robin (played by Ben Mendelsohn) for help in earning money, and in return, Robin (once a bank robber), offers him a partnership in hitting a few banks. Soon, we follow another story and center character in, Avery Cross (played by Bradley Cooper), who is a low rank, New York police officer, and married to, Jennifer (played by Rose Byrne) with an infant son. Avery is a cop filled with much remorse and guilt, and is facing a case that involves corrupted cops all who are within his department. From there on, there's nothing I can really say about the plot without really giving any spoilers.
The performances in this film from the entire cast are absoutely fantastic with Ryan Gossling, Bradley Cooper, and Dane DeHaan being the biggest standouts for me. Gossling is absoutely memorising as Luke Glanton, and completely becomes this character. Much like his performance in Drive, it's a very subtle and gritty performance, that is surely one of his finest to date. Bradley Cooper continues to shine in a compelling, and dramatic turn as Avery Cross. He gives this character that right amount of depth and likeabilty he needs. With Silver Linings Playbook, and now this, the guy has proven to be a great actor, and hopefully after The Hangover: Part 3, he'll continue to do more roles like this. But, without giving his role away, the actor that nearly steals the show here is, Dane DeHaan, who is surely one of my favorite up and coming actors. It's a very powerful, and memorable performance that surely might be compared to his performance in last year's Chronicle, but it's also a very different performance. This guy is for sure a young actor to look out for in the future.
The rest of the cast that includes, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, Bruce Greenwood, and Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, are all terrific as well, Mendes in particular. Mendes delivers her without a doubt her most dramatic, and most impressive performance of her career, and with no surprise considering they're a couple in real life, her chemistry with Gossling is real sharp. Ray Liotta as usual, plays a complete jerk, but I have no complaints because he does a great job with the role, and it was great to see him again (despite the short amount of screentime). And, Ben Mendelsohn continues to impress, and hopefully he'll continue to get more roles in the future, and Rose Byrne is probably one of the most underrated actresses right now in Hollywood, she really shines in her short amount of screentime as Cooper's wife.
Besides the performances, there are many other elements that really drive, The Place Beyond the Pines home. The emotional core behind this film is excellent, and really powerful as there are multiple times in the movie where it hit me pretty hard. Much of that includes many of the relationships between father and son throughout the movie, which obviously as a son I can releate to. Also, the score done by composer, Mike Patton is very powerful, and to me was addicting. I can see the score almost being a turnoff to some people, but I loved it. The drama thanks to screenwriters, Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder, never once felt too melodramatic, or sappy. The screenplay also throws some really strong themes throughout the film, and lots of engaging intereactions between the characters. And, while again I still haven't seen director's Cianfrance previous film, he is most certainly a director with a bright future ahead of him. During some of the intense sequences in the film, most notably a chase sequence, Cianfrance uses a bit of shaky cam, and usually I'm never a fan of shaky cam, but he really managed to make it work, and add to the scenes he uses it in. And, Cianfrance's brillant screenplay throws in a good amount of twist and turns along the way that very much threw me off, one in particular.
If, I had any complaints about this film, there's very little. The film certainly drags a little bit in spots, and there's at least one scene in the film that I felt could have been almost completely cut out as other than one turning point, it didn't add a whole lot. And, throughout there are some character motivations that really had me shaking my head, but overall those are really minor nit-picks at best.
But, even with those very few complaints, The Place Beyond the Pines is without a doubt the most complex, compelling, engaging, most well acted, and overall easily the best film I've seen yet all year. Certainly a film that could get even better on a rewatch, or just thinking about it more. And without giving it away, the way the film concludes was wholly satisfying for me, and it's tough to not be at least a little moved by it. Is it a film for everybody? No it's not, but it was for me. The Place Beyond the Pines is a brillant crime drama that will surely not be leaving my mind anytime soon, and is one of those few dramas that actually felt like a true movie experience, which is what I want when I go to the movies. I can very well see this get completely sholved come oscar season, but I pray that will not be the case, and this at least gets some recognition particuarly in directing, and the performances. A must see for film fans at least. My grade could very likely get bumped up in the future.
FINAL GRADE: A-, 9.5/10
