THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES Review

By Darin Skaggs

     With television very much on the rise some may say it and film are on equal ground now.  That being so, both seem to influence each other.  Television seasons seem to have one long plot line and split into such small amount of episodes that they are like a large film.  Some movies also take from television now days, much like Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines.  The film is told in three parts each focusing on a different band of characters and still connecting to the big story.

     The film begins with Luke, played by Ryan Gosling, who is a stunt man at a circus.  He soon runs into an old flame Romina, played by Eva Mendez, who wants nothing to do with him.  He later goes to her home to try to find her, instead her mother answers holding a child.  She says that this child is his.  He then sets out to support the kid and make him remember who he is.  Being the way that he is Luke does not want to work.  Instead he meets this man in the woods who says at one time he robbed banks.  Luke then joins him to rob these banks and make money for his child.  A little over half hour in the film the focus shifts from Gosling’s character to a cop named Avery played by Bradly Cooper.  Avery brings justice to Luke and spends his time in the film dealing with that fact.

     It is a shift that comes out of nowhere and one of the better sequences of the film.  Later on in the film, the last third in fact, begins with the title card “15 Years Later” which is an insanely out of nowhere shift.  It takes a minute to accept what just happened and is not as strong as the first two thirds of the film but still makes the film enjoyable.

     The performances in the film, especially from the younger actors, are all great.  They all really bring to life these characters.  The film reminds me of the best parts of the TV show LOST.  No, there is no Black Smoke Monster or “Others” but the story focuses on several different characters at different times.  The film is surely episodic.  We focus on Luke, then Avery, then others in the future while still focusing on Romina still throughout the film.  It is almost a three part series focusing on this one big story.  Each part of the story wonderfully conclude where the title suggest, the place beyond the pines.

     The film has a great style with it.  There is a very beautiful sense to this gritty tale.  There is also a sense of dread that goes along with this film.  This is due to the score that is blaring throughout the film.  It gives you the feeling that anything can happen, even after what we thought was the worst is behind us the score tells us that we are still not safe.  And it is correct.