Two years after debuting with the wildly successful dark romance Blue Valentine, which saw Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively, at the 2011 Golden Globes Award, director Derek Cianfrance is back with The Place Beyond The Pines. Back too is Gosling, and if Blue Valentine broke your heart, chances are this crime-drama will too.
Luke Glanton (Gosling) is a talented motorcycle rider who shows off his extreme skills at an amusement park. One night, his ex-girlfriend Romina (Eva Mendes) shows up out of the blue after a year’s absence. Luke not only learns that he’s the father of a one-year-old child, Jason, but that Romina plans on starting a new family with a rich man, Kofi. Determined to find a new job that could support his family, Luke meets repair shop owner Robin (Ben Mendelsohn), who soon enough introduces him to the world of crime where his superlative motorbike skills come in very, very handy. But, as Robin tells Luke rather ominously, “If you ride like lightning, you’re gonna crash like thunder.”
The second part of this riddle centers on young fast-rising policeman Avery (Bradley Cooper), the man who puts a stop to Luke’s criminal ways—making him the city’s new hero. Seemingly the only one unimpressed is Avery’s wife, Jane, who wants him to quit the risky police job for the sake of his family. Avery also realizes his new reputation is not everything he dreamed of when he discovers that the criminal was a father just like himself. Avery tries to support Luke’s family as compensation, but this gets him into trouble with the police department. After quitting his police career, Avery is once again faced with the consequences of his actions 15 years down the line when his son becomes best friends with Luke’s as-yet-unwitting son, Jason.
While Blue Valentine explores the ways relationships can gradually grow apart, The Place Beyond The Pines looks deeper at how individual decisions can have long-lasting effects and how good intentions aren’t always enough. The story emphasizes cause-and-effect while constantly keeping you guessing, as with the film’s third movement. At first, we thought it unnecessary, but eventually it won us over.
Cianfrance’s film is gritty and steeped-in-reality; there’s no gratuitous happy ending, but despite the fairly harrowing subject matter, the results are thought provoking rather than too depressing. While there’s no doubting Gosling, Cooper and even Mendes’ acting skills, Cianfrance shows again that he has a special talent for developing gripping characters. The Place Beyond The Pines is a heart-breaking example of how one’s decisions can have unexpected consequences.
