The Place Beyond the Pines

Cafe Society
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I saw The Place Beyond the Pines today and it took me to a place beyond my expectations. When I saw the trailer, the impression I got that this was gonna be a “heist” movie with the added nuance of corrupt cops. Well, it was that; but it was a helluva lot more.

Taking place over a fifteen year span, and with a length perhaps done in proportion at around two and a half hours, the movie is almost epic in scope. Despite that term, ‘epic’, it is invariably intimate, allowing us to get inside the characters - we learn, and feel, their hopes and fears, dreams and nightmares. I actually cared about them, something that for me, at least, is pretty rare.

I won’t say much about the plot but will emphasize that despite the trailer, this is not a ‘cops and robbers’ or ‘heist’ flick. What it’s really about is fathers and sons, second chances, hope and its loss, and destiny - pretty heady stuff for a movie about a motorcycle stunt rider who wants more than he has any right to.

Although it is excellent all 'round, ‘Pines’ is absolutely superb in terms of the acting and the soundtrack. As someone who usually finds Brad Cooper almost impossible to watch, here he was magnificent, striking the perfect balance between aspirations and machinations, and between good and human. As terrific as Cooper was, Ryan Gosling stole the show. He was amazing to watch, totally wrapped in his character. And what a character - a white trash trailer type, a criminal with a gift for riding motorcycles and getting into trouble - who had lots of love to give but no one to give it to.

If you’re thinking of seeing it, and I strongly recommend that you do, a word of warning: Do not read the reviews before you’ve seen the film. A number of them give away, and spoil, huge aspects of the plot and movie. I’m glad I stuck to my rule of avoiding reviews of movies until I’ve seen them. So many critics seem to delight in spoiling the films they’re only supposed to review.

In any case, I really hadn’t intended to make this into a review (and it surely isn’t). I had started the thread really just to find out if anyone else around here had seen it and, if so, what they thought.

So, let me ask - what did you think?

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I really liked it as well. Without saying too much, I’ll just say that I loved the three-part structure. As Karl said, it really gave the film an expansive quality that emphasized the “ripple effect” that a certain event in the movie causes. The recurring visual images (like the shots of someone riding either a motorcycle or a bicycle down a wide-open road) illustrate this theme as well. And what an opening shot this movie has! A long tracking shot that follows Ryan Gosling’s character across the fairgrounds, into a tent, onto a motorcycle, and into a spherical cage. I really want to know how they staged the switch between Gosling and the stunt performer; there might be a hidden edit in there somewhere, but I suspect it’s some kind of “hiding in plain sight” trick that’s really obvious once someone points it out. And while Gosling and Cooper are indeed terrific, my favorite performance was actually from Ben Mendelsohn, as Gosling’s cohort, Robin. He plays up the character’s seedier aspect without turning him into some kind of white-trash caricature.

I did have two problems with the movie. First, there is so much plot here (almost enough for a TV miniseries or even a full season of a TV show) that some characters are inevitably underserved. I would have liked to seen Eva Mendes’s and especially Rose Byrne’s characters a little more developed. Second, I don’t have as many problems with the third act as some of the critics do, but I think the actor who plays A.J. (Emory Cohen) was pretty terrible. It seems like he was going for some kind of brooding, young-Brando characterization, but he seemed more like a Jersey Shore reject (gold chain included). I just did not buy that character as being the son of Bradley Cooper and Rose Byrne. He looks especially bad acting opposite Dane DeHaan, who is fantastic.

The movie got a big expansion this weekend (over 500 theaters), so hopefully it will pull in a decent audience.

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I’m glad I saw it before reading any reviews. I’d seen the trailer multiple times but only because I go to the movies a lot and it was shown a lot. I still didn’t know what the movie was about, really.

Jesus, yes. At the theater I saw it, there’s one of those full-size poster board reviews from someplace legitimate (New York Times or Rolling Stone or someplace whatever the fuck like that) and it gave away the WHOLE PLOT. I’m so glad I didn’t read it beforehand.

I’m also glad I saw it before reading Rollo’s spoiler-filled post. Tsk tsk tsk.

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I agree whole heartedly and am embarrassed to say I forgot to mention him; I got sidetracked and never came back to Mendelsohn in my post. I say ‘embarrassed’ because I feel foolish not including a word about someone who I actually thought was so good that come Oscar time next year, I expect he’ll get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

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I seem to remember either a cut or certainly him riding offscreen and around before getting on the ramp into the sphere. Nice shot, but never for a second did I think Gosling was doing that trick–though it brought memories to when I first saw that in a circus (in South America), which was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

Ditto Bruce Greenwood

I thought this at first, but then I realized that really was giving the character the benefit of the doubt to be more thoughtful, self-aware, or complicated than perhaps he really was. Did I hate the actor or just how horrible a character he was playing? You want to believe they would’ve raised a smarter son, but perhaps that’s a testament to his ambition and her alienation–that the son grew up a complete and utter tool (his behavior as the movie went on seemed to reinforce this).

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Definitely something I plan to see, since it was shot around here. I already recognize several of the locations from the trailer.