When I walked into the movie theater to see ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ I expected something great. With an all-star cast including Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper, fresh off of his Best Actor nomination, I was sure I wouldn’t be disappointed with the movie. Sadly, these actors’ performances were by far the best part of a lengthy film with not much else to boast.
‘Pines’ follows a hood rat motorcyclist, Luke (Gosling), as he runs into an old fling, Ro (Mendes) and discovers that he fathered her 1-year-old son Jason. In order to prove himself worthy to a woman who is already with another man, he does anything he can to acquire enough money to support her and his son. When this ends up getting him into a serious amount of trouble, the local cop Avery (Cooper) steps in.
The film is divided into three distinct sections — one part features Luke, the next focuses on Avery and the third is set 15 years later with Luke and Avery’s sons both grown old — interesting in concept but poor in execution. Because of the unexpected flash forward, the movie seemed to last about half an hour longer than it should have, with no added value.
The film, however, does take an interesting perspective on crime and justice. Because Gosling can make you love the undesirable — in this case a tattoo-covered outlaw — Luke appears sensitive and caring as a simple father bending the law to provide for his family. When he is seemingly brought to justice by Avery, the audience is consequently appalled and slightly disgusted by the hero-worship Avery receives and by the corruption in the police department that ensues. This could have been done very well, but Cooper’s performance falters with a multi-dimensional character that was not developed well enough to be meaningful.
Gosling, however, is phenomenal as always, in what seems to be a very natural role for him. He plays this character like no one else could. The multitude of tattoos, including a face tattoo, a ripped Metallica T-shirt, the motorcycle — these all weirdly remind me of what I think Gosling would be like if he weren’t an actor. Perhaps this is what makes Luke so oddly likable — a thug with a heart.
The biggest fault of ‘Pines’ is that nothing presented is vaguely believable. For a film presented in such a mundane setting, downtrodden Schenectady, NY, a plot laden with bank robberies, motorcycle chases, police force corruption and drug abuse was unrealistic. Only compounding this disconnect were the many — read: excessive — links found between Avery and Luke and their families. It was hard to believe that the sons would end up being lumped together 15 years later.
Ultimately, ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ was a unique, intense film — with a brilliant soundtrack I might add — but it seems to have faltered because of the director’s need to be different. If you go, go for Gosling, because his electric performance is a shining star in a mediocre film.
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