By: debbie lynn elias
With Derek Cianfrance and Ryan Gosling, the team from Blue Valentine, in the driver’s seat of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, one would think they’d be crossing the finish line with another win. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. A poetic and noirish film, THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is definitely not as good as it should be, as by the second act, the handwriting is on the wall with obvious predictability, revealing exactly what’s going to happen with the generational and genetic coding of a second generation of characters. What starts out rather mysteriously asking the question ‘Do the sins of the father become the sins of the son?’ (which mystery is carried to great effect with musical score and visual tone) is then disappointingly lost to muddled predictability. However, this shortcoming cannot detract from the stellar performances of Gosling, Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen. Stylish in its presentation and lensing with tension and intrigue building within a character study of complexity, Cianfrance is ultimately his own worst enemy as he sets himself up for failure with the too predictable split narrative script.
Spanning some 15 years, there are three separate and distinct films here, with each structured so as to easily stand alone or be part of an episodic miniseries and while the cohesiveness is a generational storyline with strongly written characters, thematic elements fail.
Luke is a motorcycle stunt-rider known for his patented “Ball of Death” performance. A bad boy who has reduced himself to nothing more than a side-show attraction in a two-bit travelling carnival, Luke is a man of few words, is the epitome of the definition of “loner” and with his over-bleached blonde hair, torn clothes and over-tattooed body is more than a bit frightening. One night stands are his stock-in-trade and his indiscretion one year earlier has made him a father, something he surprisingly discovers this year’s stop in Schenectady when his waitress paramour, Romina, comes to see him at the carnival. And while Romina has moved on to stability with another man, this child changes everything for Luke. He embraces not only the idea of fatherhood, but its responsibilities, although those responsibilities lead him to committing bank robberies in order to contribute to his son’s life.
Avery Cross is a hot shot rookie police officer being pushed by his ex-cop father to be something “more”. Of course, Avery has his own designs on advancement in a police department that is riddled with corruption. Under pressure at work and at home makes Cross an irresponsible time bomb waiting to explode.
Without giving away any spoilers, THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES then begs the question, what happens when lives from two sides of the track converge, fathers and sons collide and legacies and genetics take hold?
Act One is essentially all Ryan Gosling and he is at the top of his game! Adding a parental sensitivity that we haven’t seen before to a reckless, bad boy, loner persona, Gosling gives Luke a tenderness that is beautiful to watch unfold. And then just watch him tear up with an infant son. He is so emotionally powerful, you feel his heartbreak. A moment of purity and beauty. Taciturn for the most part, his eyes, setting of his jaw, tell who he is. Similarly, he makes you feel his adrenalin rush with each bank robbery. Gosling drew me right into the moment with him. Daring, thrilling, exciting. As Luke he played both sides of the coin brilliantly. Raw, pure emotion. Brilliant.
But then we have Bradley Cooper’s Avery Cross who debuts in Act One but comes into his own in Act Three. Can we just say “awful.” Disbelievable, unconvincing as a cop, but a tad better with political corruption, although still, bad. Utter failure are alleged tears in the third act that come across as so fake, so phoney and dried up that even the grimace on his face looked more like a laugh than heartbreaking crying. Cooper’s performance is so bad as to be almost laughable. Clearly a miscast.
The real shining star is Dane DeHaan with Emory Cohen right behind him. The central focus of Act Two is the two of them. As Jason and AJ, sons of Luke and Avery, respectively, coming of age with plot twists and turns and the father-son dynamics coming into play, the whole “apple doesn’t fall from the tree” concept, and setting up the ultimate predictable conclusion of Act Three, these two are the faces to watch in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES and beyond!
Soaring with his patented brand of evil is the ever corrupt Ray Liotta as Deluca. As usual – masterful performance. Annoying beyond annoying is a really bad looking Eva Mendes. It is well known she wants to tackle “meatier”, “grittier” roles, but she doesn’t have the acting chops to handle them. Dousing yourself in dirt, not washing your hair and tossing in some grey streaks and a lack of hair conditioner does not a dramatic actress make you.
Mesmerizing is Sean Bobbitt’s cinematography which does as much for the film – if not more – than Gosling’s acting brilliance. Creating a visual sense of foreboding, interesting is that the film’s score mimics the cinematography, enhancing the mystery and eeriness of what we see unfolding. Mike Patton’s score also serves as the connective tissue, along with the visual tonal bandwidth, to connect the three distinct stories.
Written by Cianfrance together with Darius Marder and Ben Coccio, as with Blue Valentine, as a director Derek Cianfrance shows us he has the skills, he has the talent, he has the vision. But somewhere along the line he went too far “beyond the pines”, getting too full of himself and instead of holding back, letting loose with predictability, losing the tension and passionate interest he worked so hard to build. The split narrative falls short and appears to be so written merely to allow Cianfrance and company a platform for commentary on rampant police corruption.
Directed by Derek Cianfrance
Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen
