THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
If there’s one film I’ve seen this year that I would gladly watch on loop for the rest of my life it has got to be The Place Beyond the Pines. Admittedly this movie is not a famous as one might hope, in the U.K in particular, but despite being relatively unheard of I cannot deny it the praise it deserves. Starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper, this stunning visual masterpiece follows the story of two families and two generations over the space of seventeen years to create a poignant tale which may leave you questioning the good guy/bad guy dichotomy we tend to sort people into.
The Place Beyond the Pines is a harrowing film which starts off set in the nineties, with the character of the stunt motorcyclist Luke (played by Ryan Gosling), who works with a travelling carnival, returning to the same town after a year and finding the girl he had a fling with waiting for him. Eva Mendes plays the distant and oddly reserved Romina, who he discovers is in a relationship and seems to want nothing more from him than to say hello. It is only when Luke, on impulse, drops in on her that he discovers she has a child- a child that is also his. This is the first event in a chain which results in much violence and the death of the protagonist after turning to crime to support his son.
However, it would be wrong to say that The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie entirely about a man’s descent into bank robbery since Luke dies not halfway through- rather, this film seems to be the Bohemian Rhapsody of movies, having three distinct parts, something not commonly seen in the modern film industry. The first is centred around Luke and his struggle to support the needs of his son, but the second moves on entirely to follow the life of Avery Cross, the police officer who killed Luke. Here we see another moving and painful episode as Avery struggles to cope with the guilt of what he has done, made worse by the crooked, money-grabbing cops around him who take the stolen money from the innocent Romina and keep it for themselves. Bradley Cooper takes on the role excellently, making a poignant picture as we watch Avery becoming more estranged from his infant son knowing that he robbed another child of their father.
The final part of The Place Beyond the Pines has us jump forward fifteen or so years into the lives of Jason, Luke’s son, and AJ, Avery’s son. Jason is frustrated and wants to know about his father but his mother refuses to speak about it. He does some research on his own and finds a news article about how he died. AJ moves to his high school and, both being drug users, he begins to use Jason, forcing him to unwillingly bring pills to a party at his house. Halfway through the night, Jason finds a picture of Avery and recognises him as the police officer that killed his father. He starts a fight and ends up being put in the hospital. Jason returns to AJ’s house with a gun, beating him up, before taking Avery out into the forest to shoot him. Cooper’s character comes alive in the final moments of the film as we see the guilt and frustration of fifteen years let out in an instant. Avery is remorseful and expresses this but asks continually about the welfare of his own son, bitterly highlighting the fact that there is no-one to ask after Jason. Jason decides not to shoot him and flees.
The first scene to the last is striking, artful, and thoughtfully crafted by actor and director alike. The proverbial curtains open on a silent Luke flicking open and shut a switchblade before we follow behind him as he walks through the bustling carnival to the tent where the motorcyclists perform. The detail is incredible and undeniably realistic- Luke is not celebratory or arrogant after succeeding in his first bank robbery like so many other tacky action movies, but visibly shaken to the point where he is physically ill. Finally we are brought to an ending which seems to give the film a circle of life structure as Luke’s son hands over a roll of money to a man selling him an old motorbike before wordlessly riding off into the trees, seeming more and more like the father he never knew.
The Place Beyond the Pines gives us everything we expect from Ryan Gosling, making us flinch like we’re watching Gangster Squad and cry like it’s The Notebook. Personally I think the film is a refreshing change from those simplistic movies with a distinct hero and villain and shows both light and dark in each character with no absolute boundaries; the bank robber commits crimes for an honourable reason, and the police officer kills a man and is commended for it. It’s a much more complex scenario than ‘the bad guy is bad and the good guy is good’ and just makes the watcher feel more conflicted as the plot unfolds.
All in all, if you’re looking for a good film to make you feel wonderfully awful (my friends were sobbing, too) and you want to watch it through beautiful camerawork with outstanding actors and complex characters then you need to see The Place Beyond the Pines- it is a true work of art.