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USA 2012
Directed by
Derek Cianfrance
140 minutes
Rated MA

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
3 stars

The Place Beyond The Pines

With Derek Cianfrance’s film you get not one, not two but three films. Or if you like one film with two sequels. Unfortunately the law of diminishing returns applies and although the initial installment is gripping the longer the film goes on the less appealing it becomes. Cianfrance who with co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder may well have been taken with the film’s ambitious metaphysical thesis but it is difficult to understand why he did not appreciate that his film needed to be a lot tighter in order to keep our attention.   

Set in upstate New York the film tells the story of two men - an itinerant motorcycle stunt rider Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) and policeman Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). When Luke finds out that he had fathered a child as a result of a brief affair with a waitress (Eva Mendes) he decides that the wants to be involved in the child’s upbringing. Unfortunately Luke’s ideas are not very sensible and he gets involved with a grungy mechanic (Ben Mendelshohn) who introduces him to quick and easy money in the form of bank robberies. After some initial success, Luke becomes addicted to the practice and of course his luck runs out. This takes the form of Cross whose apparently heroic act in catching Luke eventually propels him to public office as an assistant D.A. The film then jumps forward by fifteen years to a meeting between the two men’s sons (Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen), now teenagers attending the same high school.   

The first part of the film is compelling with a solid story, well-drawn characters and strong performances with Gosling, who had starred in Cianfrance's 2010 film Blue Valentine, commanding the screen. Unfortunately once Gosling’s Luke is removed from the narrative and Cooper takes over the film begins to lose momentum and focus. Cooper is well suited to playing smarmy but not only is his Cross less appealing a character but his transformation from straight-up guy with a conscience to ruthless careerist is not particularly convincingly handled. By the time it arrives at the final chapter, bar illustrating the broad sins-of-the-fathers maxim that provides its raison d’être, the film has lost all traction. It then quickly peters out with an oblique ending.  

Rarely does a film evidence such a consistent diminution of strength. Fortunately for us the starting point is in its case very strong. Even so, at 2 hours 20 minutes Cianfrance had plenty of opportunity to stop the downward trajectory.

 

 

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