I'd been looking forward to The Place Beyond The Pines since I saw the first trailer for it. Atmospheric music and promises of stellar performances from the always great Ryan Gosling and the on-the-up Bradley Cooper. I had high hopes. Perhaps too high?
*The following synopsis features spoilers*
The film is split into three different stories, the first is of stunt motorcycle rider Luke (Ryan Gosling), who returns to a small town a year after he was last there with the state fair he does daredevil stunts for. He discovers upon his return that he has fathered a child with Romina (Eva Mendes), a woman he had a brief fling with 12 months prior. Deciding to do right by the child Luke quits his job, allowing him to stay in town and build a relationship with the boy. He gets a job with a local mechanic Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), which leads to him taking part in armed robberies to get money together for the kid. Luke is tragically killed by police officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) after a robbery goes wrong. Here we pick up the second thread of the story where we discover that Avery is not the heroic cop that the press have lead everyone to believe. The third act of film is set 15 years later and shows how this chain of events have shaped the lives of both Luke's and Avery's sons. *End of Spoilers*
The Place Beyond The Pines was one of those films that as I was watching it I was thinking how good it was, how clever, how brilliant all of the performances were. That was until we got to the third act. Up until then I stand by the fact that it is a great movie and features fantastic performances. And if you walk out of the film then, it still will be. I however, stayed until the end, and I really wish I hadn't. I had massive issues with the third act of this story.
For one, it makes the film too long. It's 140 minutes. If you shaved off or even just cut down the third act it would be under 2 hours. Which is acceptable. But honestly, it feels about half an hour too long. For two, the performances from the teenage boys are not great. Dane DeHaan (you'll recognise him if you've seen last years Chronicle) who plays Luke's son Jason does a decent enough job, but Emory Cohen who plays Avery's son AJ is really quite a terrible actor. He's all swagger and pouty lips and he just can't pull that off. He also looks in no way related to Bradley Cooper, which is an issue because you don't ever really feel like they're related? For three, the whole story of how what happened between Luke and Avery affects the boys feels really unnecessary. They could have hinted at it, shown glimpses of the boys growing up but I didn't feel like an in-depth look at the boys psyche was required.
It's a shame as otherwise I'd have nothing but praise for Pines. Gosling and Cooper are both superb and Liotta puts in his usual menacing performance which is as enjoyable as ever. Mendes and Byrne are both beautiful and fiesty as the love interests and capable support is provided by Mendelsohn, Ali, Yulin, Clohessy and Greenwood, who is particularly watchable as ever.
By all means see what you think for yourself but don't believe the hype. 6 out of 10.
Viewing Date - 21st April 2013
UK Release Date - 12th April 2013
Cast Overview:
Ryan Gosling ~ Luke
Bradley Cooper ~ Avery
Eva Mendes ~ Romina
Rose Byrne ~ Jennifer
Ben Mendelsohn ~ Robin
Mahershala Ali ~ Kofi
Harris Yulin ~ Al Cross
Robert Clohessy ~ Chief Weirbowski
Bruce Greenwood ~ Bill Killcullen
Ray Liotta ~ Deluca
Emory Cohen ~ AJ
Dane DeHaan ~ Jason
Director ~ Derek Cianfrance
Writer(s) ~ Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder
No comments:
Post a Comment