[critical] The Place Beyond The Pines

Stunt motorcycle, Luke is renowned for its spectacular number of the “globe of death”. When his traveling show returns to Schenectady, in the State of New York, he discovers that Romina, with whom he had had an adventure, just gave birth to his son… To meet the needs of those who are now his family, Luke quits the show and commits a series of robberies. Each time, his talents as a pilot out hand in hand to enable him to escape. But Luke will soon cross the road to a police ambitious, Avery Cross, decided to quickly rise in the hierarchy beset by corruption. Fifteen years later, the sons of Luke and Avery come face to face, haunted by a mysterious past which they are far from knowing everything…

Author’s Note

[rating:7/10]

• Release Date : March 20, 2013

• Directed by Derek Cianfrance

• Film American

• With Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes

• Duration : 2h20min

• Original title : The Place Beyond The Pines

• Trailer :

The Place Beyond The Pines is a film that seems to build as we advance in the story, giving the aesthetic a realistic lightning and this part documentary which abâtardit not, however, its spectacular side in the action sequences. It is also built on its characters, in this sense, Derek Cianfrance wanted to turn Ryan Gosling into a bad boy tattooed while leaving this side taiseux which is not without reminding us of the character that he embodies the Drive of Nicolas Winding Refn.

The film is split into three parts (three lives) operates perfectly the relationship that they have between them. And when Luke (Ryan Gosling), a stuntman, became a bank robber of bank to meet the needs of his family is killed (almost) in cold blood by Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), he takes the life but also and especially its history and its place within the film ; such a man comes out of nowhere, that knocks a ruler, he operates a veritable ” coup d’état “. Yet we spectators unbelievers that we are, that is identified by the compassion can be, especially to Luke will be staying miserly in this sense to Cross haunted by his past (the murder of Luke during the chase) and what can be considered as the future of Luke, his son Jason (Dane DeHaan). The key to the movie is so obvious (maybe too much), the heavy secrecy around Luke and of that fateful day. First for Romina (Eva Mendes) who had promised Luke never to reveal to their son who he really was, what Jason learns, perhaps at the expense of his mother. There is also the secret of Luke, Avery Cross will use in his quest to rise in the police hierarchy, making it more and more the face of the corruption, the easy way to get what he wants.

So here we are in front of a new essential theme of the film, the figure of the cop rotted flat on each of the police officers. The second half of the film is pace so sudden of methods outside of the law, of low blows and corruption. A. C. is constantly put under pressure by his fault unconfessed first and by his colleagues then, he will not hesitate to denounce to satisfy his ambition. A game stingy settles, who is the more evil, the answer is the Cross, a liar, a manipulator and opportunist at all times. As in many film noirs, it is therefore a question of gangsters against cops rotten, and it is often the villains who triumph in the hero. The Place Beyond The Pines against all odds is no exception to this rule.

The Place Beyond The Pines spread thus three lives by placing them under the themes of revenge, ambition and inheritance, a theme recurring film noir. It is surely Robin Van Der Zee (Ben Mendelsohn) who creates the better this shift in the genre gangster film, the image of the former bank-robber of bank which wants to return it. His plan is original, and seems flawless, until the moment when he wants to stop and this time Luke did not agree, the vicious circle, the greed won out. The sequence with the strongest of the film, then, is the pursuit taking all of its promises, half-way between the realism and the spectacular. The shots inside the car are reminiscent of the proceedings in the documentary, the cascades motorcycle join the next hot head Luke and his troupe of performing goodwill he has left. And this is when Luke takes refuge in the house, as Cross comes in and pulls the first as the story takes off, Luke is literally erased, and it is Jason who shall perpetuate his memory.

The confrontation between Luke and Avery Cross therefore takes place first through the approximation of their progeny respective to know Jason and AJ (Emory Cohen). At first sight, this is AJ, which poses a problem to his father, who is a character rather figurative, but that stereotype a lot about the kid of a cop rebel is the cause of the interference of Jason in their lives, seen as the disruptive element. Cross would have been able to get rid of Jason to make fast but this is not a criminal and even if he killed once, he is not capable here. On the other side, Jason fills hatred seems to be ready to eliminate anyone, it is psychology accented by his father, in other words, Luke worse.

All these characters are highlighted by the story should morph the film into a real masterpiece. And yet there’s something missing, or rather it is something in too much ; this is the tare weight that makes us enjoy not fully the work that you see. I do not discourage, nevertheless, see this movie, but I can see that at a given moment he is running out of steam, leaving a good thirty minutes too. And we often fall into the cliché, in a movie that is far from the use to denounce them to the image of Harmony Korine in Spring Breakers. Thus it can be seen that this luxury casting reinforces and support the film when it dives into the” obvious “, “already seen” in a story yet original.