A film review by Craig J. Koban April 16, 2013 |
|||||
RANK: #4 |
|||||
RANK: #1 |
|||||
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
Ryan Gosling: Luke / Eva Mendes: Romina / Ben Mendelsohn: Robin / Bradley Cooper: Avery / Ray Liotta: Deluca / Mahershala Ali: Kofi / Bruce Greenwood: Bill / Ray Liotta: DeLuca / Rose Byrne: Jennifer Directed by Derek Cianfrance / Written by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder |
|||||
His
previous film, the engrossing and authentically rendered family drama BLUE
VALENTINE (which I placed high on my Top Ten Films of 2010 list)
marked the arrival of a kind of director that just does not
seem in abundance anymore: one that absconds away from Hollywood formulas
and contrivances and instead intrepidly forges ahead by taking great
creative risks and gambles. Now,
with THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, Cianfrance unequivocally proves that
he’s the real deal among the directorial elite. His
new film is a sprawling, multi-generational family saga that, oddly
enough, reminded me considerably of THE GODFATHER saga for how both
chronicle how the sins of fathers unavoidably will crash down upon the
heads of unsuspecting sons. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is arguably even grander as far as
single film narratives go, as it tells three highly unique storylines –
told over a period of nearly two decades – and how the first taps into
the second and, in turn, how the second taps into the third. Cianfrance explored relationship woes between husbands,
wives, and their children in BLUE VALENTINE, but here he expands his focus
to see how highly questionable decisions made by one generation have a
dreadful snowball effect to subsequent ones.
There is an element of Greek tragedy in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
in the way that it shows paternal figures striving to accommodate for the
American Dream for their offspring, only later to see how those choices
later conflict with their own morality. In
a bold opening that Martin Scorsese would admire, Cianfrance begins the
film in a long, smooth and audaciously realized dolly shot as we see
motorcycle circus daredevil Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, re-teaming with
Cianfrance after BLUE VALENTINE) prep in his trailer, leave it, and then
take a long walk through the crowded circus grounds all the way to his
motorcycle and then finally into a large circular steel cage that he and
three other riders perform loop-de-loops in.
Showy? Yes.
Yet, this introduction to the film serves to reinforce that this is
going to be one of unqualified purpose and scope.
Luke
lives a life of friendless solitude and relative poverty.
He’s trash. He
discovers early in the film that he fathered a child during a fling with a
Schenectady, NY waitress named Romina (a never more raw and
authentic Eva Mendes). Luke
had a troubled upbringing, so he understands the value of being in his
newly discovered child’s life, but he is not financially – and perhaps
emotionally – up to the task of supporting him. Plus,
Romina is living with her boyfriend, which complicates matters.
Luke tries to set himself up with a job as a lowly mechanic, but
his boss (the creepily effective chameleon, Ben Mendelsohn), begins to
teach Luke the craft of bank robbery, seeing as Luke’s bike riding
talent would prove to be valuable in such capers.
The
second storyline that is told alongside and then after Luke’s: Rookie officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper, getting finer and more natural
with every new performance) once had ambitions to go to law school,
but later realized that being a cop was his calling.
He also, like Luke, has a wife and newborn child, although his
relationship to them maintains a normalcy that Luke pines for. Fatefully,
Luke and Avery’s paths do indeed cross during one of the former’s bank
robbery attempts, which culminates in a decision made by one that
will change both of their lives.
Afterwards, Avery is then given a reality check when he is forced
to deal with police corruption within his own department and the
subsequent dicey choices he makes in the name of seeking justice. Too
many critics, to be blunt, have gone into too much detail regarding the
third act of the film, which I will not do, only to say that Cianfrance
makes some refreshingly unexpected choices.
With a stark title card that hits you in the stomach (“15 Years
Later”), the narrative flashforwards to the lives of Luke and Avery’s
children and how they come to learn about and accept their father’s past
decisions. Some have
complained about how manipulative and overly telegraphed this section of
the film is, but, to the contrary, I think it adds a whole new
intoxicating layer of compelling interest in the story that reinforces the
film’s themes of a father’s dark legacy and how past
indiscretions find their way to the present.
THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES almost becomes a tale of twisted and perverted
destiny run afoul by this point. Just
as he proved with BLUE VALENTINE, Cianfrance is really adept at crafting
lived-in performances from his leads that help ground his films in a gritty
verisimilitude. The two key
performances by Gosling and Cooper – showing two starkly different men
at polar opposites of the morality scale that both make bad choices in
life – reiterate Cianfrance’s determination to not have clean-cut
heroes or villains in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, just shades of grey
personas that try to eek their way through life.
Gosling – with his bleach blond locks, multiple body tattoos,
ripped physique, and 80’s styled biker wardrobe – is a physical freak
of nature, but, as always, the actor is a master of creating a performance
of dialed-in and introverted rage and disillusionment.
Cooper may have the trickier role, as he begins the film as a
proverbial straight laced lawman and then has to deal with not only his
life-altering run-in with Luke, but also with his own unethical behavior that he later engages in to take down the corrupt cops and get himself
ahead in life. These two
Oscar worthy performances both highlight how these two different men –
one on the side of the law and the other a hopeless society fringe figure
– have the shared experience of making compromises in life that will
hurt others around them. THE
PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is a long and patient film (nearly two and a half
hours), but it never feels methodically drawn out or self-indulgently
tedious because we are so mesmerized and drawn into the intimately cursed
world of these deeply flawed individuals and tracing Luke and Avery’s
missteps into the future. The
beguilingly sad musical cords of Mike Patton and the cold and oppressively
grungy cinematography by Sean Bobbit gives the film a dreamlike aura of
ever-escalating menace and dread, further complimenting the almost operatic
tone of the piece. Very few films such as this do such a superlative job of
aesthetically inviting you in for the ride only to make you feel restless
and uneasy while on its journey. The real star of THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, though, is Cianfrance, who paints on his cinematic canvas as so very few do right now. The masterful dichotomy of the film is how all encompassing and large it is in terms of its scale and focus while remaining quietly introverted in gracefully exploring the nuance of human frailty and shared misery. Best of all is that Cianfrance takes calculated chances that would alarm other filmmakers, which helps elevate him – and his films – far above the types of dime-a-dozen throwaway genre efforts we have seen countless times before. I’m pretty confident that I will not see a finer film in all of 2013 than THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, or, at the very least, I wont see another that has this film’s unbridled narrative and thematic ambition that’s helmed with so much limitless confidence and creative vision. |
|||||
|
|||||