The Place Beyond the Pines

Written by Will.

Image Credit: Derek Winnert.

There is always one or two movies that go unrecognized by the general public because of their low-key indie sensibility. They won’t appeal to a broader audience and aren’t quite Academy Award material either – perhaps because they fall too early in the year. The Place Beyond the Pines definitely fit this bill. This movie takes place in Schenectady, New York, the most difficult to pronounce town in New York, which derived from a Mohawk word meaning “the place beyond the pine plains” (thank you, Wikipedia).

This movie centers around two characters: a motorcycle stunt-man (Ryan Gosling) and a law school-educated police officer (Bradley Cooper). The heavily tattooed motorcycle stunt-man represents the anarchic and free-wheeling spirit of the rebel who is not above going beyond the law to provide for his son. Bradley Cooper’s character, on the other hand, is the far more stable side of humanity with aspirations for more power and public office in Schenectady.  They both, however, recognize the need to get money by any means necessary to provide for their sons. While they may differ in their backgrounds and methods, they are similar in this regard. Eventually, they both come into direct conflict with one another and this confrontation ends up having long-lasting repercussions. I won’t give anything away, but it’s a pretty important section of the movie.

One of the things that this movie does particularly well is establishing characters. Having two entirely different characters from two entirely different walks of life creates a conflict that needs to be resolved. There is a clash of cultures and we are asked to identify with both of the characters at some point during the movie. That being said, neither of the characters are what you would consider a “good guy.” Each has his own faults and flaws, which are readily acknowledged. This sense of moral ambiguity is reflected in the gritty and unadorned cinematography with a flawless tracking shot that follows the stunt-man character without cutting once in the first scene of the movie.

Another thing that the director manages to sustain throughout the movie is a sense of theme. Unlike this director’s previous movie, Blue Valentine, which focused primarily on dysfunctional romantic relationships (most dysfunctional couple award?), this movie centers on the bond between father and son. This motif has its roots in the Bible, especially the Old Testament and in Greek tragedy of course. This is a well-trodden path in the theatre of 20^th century American playwrights, such as Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, and a few others who drew invoked the work of the Greeks to draw upon the American dream. It’s refreshing to see these classical themes portrayed in a modern American film.

That being said, this movie does lose me after a while. In the final act of our three-act story, the director does not deliver a satisfying conclusion. This was definitely a direction that it was going in, and by changing this, the director pulls the proverbial rug out from under the audience and we, the viewers, land uncomfortably on our asses. This definitely falls into the category of “this could have been soooo great, but that ending?”

This movie has a lot going for it: an engaging plot, compelling characters, a sense of theme, and great cinematography. It’s nice to see someone attempt to make something that is not derivative, or not as derivative as the vast majority of Hollywood scripts. But I can’t help to think that this movie could have been much better if it had a more appropriate ending. It really demanded this sort of ending and the fact that it was not present is a big disappointment to me.  There were also many coincidences that make this movie seem contrived, at times. Although this movie didn’t live up to its potential, it manages to be thoroughly entertaining, well-filmed, and well-acted.

Image Credit: Collective-Solace Tumblr.

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