Movie Review - The Place Beyond The Pines
I don't get this movie, at all.
It starts off reasonably enough. Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) is a carny motorcycle stunt rider. At the end of a gig in a small town in New York state, he finds out he has a 3-month old son, Jason, from a relationship with Romina (Eva Mendes) the year before. Romina is involved with another man, but Luke quit his job anyway to try and find work locally, to help provide for his son. Work is tough, and he gets drawn into robbing banks for extra money.
The trouble is that the film changes direction a number of times. Across a span of 15 years, the viewpoint switches from Luke to police officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), to Avery's son AJ (Emory Cohen), and back to Luke's teenage son Jason (Dane DeHaan). Although the lives of these characters all intersect, and there is continutity through each handover, there doesn't seem to be any single consistent thread, theme or plot which runs through the whole movie. The only characters which run its length are Romina and Jason, but it's never about Romina, and Jason is a baby for much of the time.
The Place Beyond The Pines is not badly made. The script, characters, acting, cinematography and direction are all great. The relationships between the characters are complex and nuanced. The opening scene is a wonderfully shot long take, following Luke preparing for and starting his motorbike stunt show. I just couldn't figure out what the point of it was.
In some ways, this puts me in mind of some modern art. It's obviously well executed, but I just can't tell what it's meant to be, and therefore can't really feel anything significant towards it. Now, I'm not one to shy away from thinking about films, and I don't particularly like it when they spell everything out in crayon. Depth and ambiguity can be great. But I need some kind of handle or starting place from which to base further thoughts. Some main idea that I can use to open a conversation with someone else who's seen it. This, this just slips away from me.
If I try really hard to come up with some theme or plot, the best I've got is that it's a look at people who live near the edge of society, be that vocationally, economically or legally. Either that, or the father-and-son symmetry between Luke and Jason at opposite ends of the movie, despite their lack of contact, might have something to say about inherited predestination, or something.
That feels like I'm forcing things though. Maybe instead this film is meant to reflect real life, which can tend to be a series of loosely connected events, unsuited to having a narrative forced upon it after the fact. Or perhaps it's a piece of art for art's sake, and director Derek Cianfrance simply refuses to compromise its integrity just to make it more accessible for the masses.
Either way, while there is a certain amount to appreciate here, there's not that much to care about one way or another.
It starts off reasonably enough. Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) is a carny motorcycle stunt rider. At the end of a gig in a small town in New York state, he finds out he has a 3-month old son, Jason, from a relationship with Romina (Eva Mendes) the year before. Romina is involved with another man, but Luke quit his job anyway to try and find work locally, to help provide for his son. Work is tough, and he gets drawn into robbing banks for extra money.
The trouble is that the film changes direction a number of times. Across a span of 15 years, the viewpoint switches from Luke to police officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), to Avery's son AJ (Emory Cohen), and back to Luke's teenage son Jason (Dane DeHaan). Although the lives of these characters all intersect, and there is continutity through each handover, there doesn't seem to be any single consistent thread, theme or plot which runs through the whole movie. The only characters which run its length are Romina and Jason, but it's never about Romina, and Jason is a baby for much of the time.
The Place Beyond The Pines is not badly made. The script, characters, acting, cinematography and direction are all great. The relationships between the characters are complex and nuanced. The opening scene is a wonderfully shot long take, following Luke preparing for and starting his motorbike stunt show. I just couldn't figure out what the point of it was.
In some ways, this puts me in mind of some modern art. It's obviously well executed, but I just can't tell what it's meant to be, and therefore can't really feel anything significant towards it. Now, I'm not one to shy away from thinking about films, and I don't particularly like it when they spell everything out in crayon. Depth and ambiguity can be great. But I need some kind of handle or starting place from which to base further thoughts. Some main idea that I can use to open a conversation with someone else who's seen it. This, this just slips away from me.
If I try really hard to come up with some theme or plot, the best I've got is that it's a look at people who live near the edge of society, be that vocationally, economically or legally. Either that, or the father-and-son symmetry between Luke and Jason at opposite ends of the movie, despite their lack of contact, might have something to say about inherited predestination, or something.
That feels like I'm forcing things though. Maybe instead this film is meant to reflect real life, which can tend to be a series of loosely connected events, unsuited to having a narrative forced upon it after the fact. Or perhaps it's a piece of art for art's sake, and director Derek Cianfrance simply refuses to compromise its integrity just to make it more accessible for the masses.
Either way, while there is a certain amount to appreciate here, there's not that much to care about one way or another.