Have I ever told you about Rob Flynn? He is the leader of a metal outfit called Machine Head, who recorded two or three good albums in the nineties. Somewhere along the way, Flynn became obsessed with the idea of being more metal than his next of kind and the music has started going downhill. Machine Head became bloated, overwritten and barely listenable for someone who doesn't have a PhD in guitar. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES reminded me of Machine Head a little bit, in the sense that it has strong ideas but its ambitions choke the life out of it. It's a beautiful film that somewhat carries its emotions the right way, but the scenario was weak and cluttered with conflicting ideas. Legendary storytellers such as Harry Crews and Joe Lansdale have said it best : "Just tell the story. Don't get in the way.
Fuck, I'm not sure how I can resume that storyline. It's not a good thing that I can't. It's not particularly clever, I'm just afraid to overstep my boundaries and spoil something because there is sensitive information here that is interdependent with non-sensitive info. Let's do it like this. Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a gifted motorcycle rider, living a carefree life as carnival act until he gets Romina (Eva Mendes) pregnant. That gives him second thoughts about the way he's been living his life, so he wants to do good by his newfound family and provide for them. Along with his partner Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), he starts robbing banks in order to escape his miserable condition and give a future to Romina and his son Jason. That puts him on collision course with Avery (Bradley Cooper), a genuine, ambitious, good guy cop with a judge father and the world on his shoulders. That's it. That's about forty something minutes in, but I have to stop here.
What you need to know, going in to THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is that it's a Greek Tragedy. The destiny of two men on opposite factions perpetually at war (law enforcement vs criminals) is on collision course and the repercussions will be still felt way after their paths have crossed. It's an epic, admirable ambition, but it gets in the way of the story as THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is quite intimate and micromanaging in its nature, a bit like Derek Cianfrance's previous movie BLUE VALENTINE was. Thing is, BLUE VALENTINE was intimate and micromanaging from A to Z. It had a cohesive vision. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES doesn't have that. It's torn between the desire to do the same thing BLUE VALENTINE did (which it's competent at) and the desire to tell an epic story, which it ironically, epically fails at.
They have a long chunk of movie to themselves, it wasn't advertised. It's not a good thing.
The writing is kinda bad. It would have been more obvious if the actors didn't do such a fantastic job at carrying the movie, but the writing is spotty. There is no cohesive vision that brings the vignettes together. You spend a moment with a character, establish who he is and then you're ripped from his world and sent into another where the stakes are completely different. It's confusing and not enjoyable at all. Especially that last part that features the protagonists' children, which doesn't have a terrific lead like Gosling or Cooper. It's bloated, too long and if it had been my decision, I would've left it out. You can't do an intimate movie, a multi-generational drama and a crime epic at the same time. Not as a movie. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES goes in every direction, but whenever it establishes something specials, it rips the written pages off and starts over.
Also, let's talk about Ryan Gosling. He's dreamy, he's amazing and his performance in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is great, as usual. There is a beautiful scene where he asks Eva Mendes' character not to talk down on him. It has the trademark quiet beauty of Ryan Gosling being Ryan Gosling (i.e charming as fuck). But Gosling is only in one of the vignettes. That's a questionable decision, considering the movie is more or less marketed around him. There are literally two thirds of a 140 minutes movie where he's not on screen. That was disappointing. Bradley Cooper and Ben Mendelsohn also gave spirited performances and helped carry the movie into its third act, that consists of young Emory Cohen speaking horrible, cliché New York slang. He sounds like he has a potato in his mouth. He single-handedly tanked the third act for me.
I'm being harsh here. I didn't dislike THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES. Aesthetically and emotionally, the movie works. The art director and the actors carry the movie, while the screenwriters and the director are going in every directions. Simple things such as the way actors are dressed, the locations, the way the actors keep silent at the right moment carry a world of emotions. They peek through the difficult, convoluted and unsuccessful storyline and give us moments of grace. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES has good intentions, but it's trying too hard to accomplish great things. Derek Cianfrance and Ben Coccio forgot the formula that made BLUE VALENTINE so successful: you have to establish a relationship between the viewer and the character. The actors got that, the art director got that, but the screenwriters unfortunately didn't get the memo. Cianfrance and Coccio are obviously a talented team, but they should think about adapting a novel for their next project.
THREE STARS