Place Beyond the Pines
Plot
Luke Glanton, a stuntman bike rider, discovers that a brief relationship with Romina resulted in his son, Jason being born.
Deciding to do what he can to support them, he starts robbing banks. But one encounter with a young rookie cop is going to change everything – for decades to come.
Direction
Directed by Derek Cianfrance, who also co wrote the film alongside Ben Coccio and Darius Marder.
It has a gritty realistic vibe to it, at some times it is violent, or confronting in some of the adult themes.
Cast/Characters
A stacked cast (due to the nature of the narrative). The cast reside in three “parts”
“Part One”
Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes play Luke and Romina, with Mahershala Ali playing Romina’s new partner Kofi. Ben Mendelsohn plays Robin, who Jake works for/lives on his property.
“Part Two”
Bradley Cooper plays Avery, Rose Byrne plays his wife Jennifer, Ray Liotta plays Deluca, Harris Yulin plays Avery’s father Al.
Bruce Greenwood and Blue Bloods Robert Clohessy play a
Police Officer/District Attorney
“Part Three”
Emory Cohen plays AJ, and Dane DeHaan plays adult Jason.
Breakdown
I was conflicted watching this, having read how utterly amazing it was… I was left quite disappointed in what I witnessed.
First, this is not a typical “three act” film – but it is in “three parts”.
Part one – which has Luke as the primary protagonist. He is an anti hero, who seemingly will do what he can to provide for his son. That is until he is pursued following a (comically botched, where he shows his face) robbery by rookie cop Avery – and then killed in a shoot out.
Part two – follows Avery, as he discovers how dirty cops exist in the force – then he too goes against his normal morals, becoming ‘dirty’ himself.
Finally the final ‘part’ is decades later with both Luke and Avery’s now teenage sons meeting, becoming friends, then enemies in school as fifteen year-olds.
I feel sorrow for the writer director, because had this been written just half a decade later – this would have been a terrific television mini series. Instead it is a congested, over done movie that is hard to watch.
This would have allowed for much needed expansion on each of these ‘parts’. With such great performances by Liotta in two, Mendelsohn, Ali and Mendes (in one and three) – this is what was desperately missing.
By the end of the third act, you’ve almost forgotten about Luke and his desire to do the right thing (in the wrong way) for his child – because the characters that follow are crooked cops, and then good cops who become crooked politicians.
The film also weighs heavily on the theme of fatherhood. Luke is desperate to provide for his son, Avery is desperate for his fathers approval and then struggles to control his son in the 15 years later segment. Also Jason investigates who his father was , as Luke died when he was just a baby.
There are terrific performances all round, and each of the cast bring their A Game, it’s just they aren’t given the screen time to really flesh out their characters.
Overall
A muddled narrative, which tries to cram too much into an already extensive runtime of 140m. Had this been a 3hr film – then it could have expanded on some condensed story lines.
Solid performances all round, but I feel that if this was written just five years later, this would have done better as a limited series on streaming, but because it is in the medium of film it hurts the overall final product.
3.5/5
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