The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)

"If you ride like lighting, you're going to crash like thunder"


MY THOUGHTS

The Place Beyond The Pines is set up in a three part arc about fathers and sons and life decisions that affect future events.

ACT I is about Luke(Ryan Gosling) who is a motorcycle stuntman who has a baby with Romina (Eva Mendes) and wants to be apart of the baby's life and decides to become a bank robber in order to provide for the kid.

ACT II centers around Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) who becomes a local hero after bringing down a local criminal who gets mixed up with a corruption scandal that is running rampart threw the city and puts him at odds with fellow cops, friends and his family.

ACT III revolves around Jason(Dane DeHaan) and AJ(Emory Cohen) teenagers who are the sons of Luke and Avery and everything that goes on between them is tied together by past events of both their fathers.

I was really surprised when I saw this movie, in a very good way, because they trailer for this movie is a little misleading but misleading in a good way because once you see how the movie plays out it was a good thing certain things were not spoiled in the trailer which seems to be a normal thing these days.

The Place Beyond The Pines is one of those movies that really hits home to me because I can related to a few of the themes that play out over the course of the movie and I'm sure anybody else who sees this movie will as well.

Ryan Gosling gives another great performance here as Luke the mysterious stuntman turned bank robber, he doesn't have to say much just like his character in Drive but its all in his emotions and facial expressions which makes this a great turn for him, you will feel sorry for him even though his actions are bad his intentions are for good.

Bradley Cooper really shows here just like in Silver Lining Playbook why he should've won the Best Actor award this year, but after that movie and now this one, I'm sure his time is coming were he'll be winning that award. he has really come a long way from The Hangover movies and good to see him showing what he can bring to the table as an actor.

Eva Mendes probably gives her best career performance here which is a good thing because her character goes threw probably most ups and downs second to only Bradley Coopers character, maybe its a good thing her and Gosling are in a relationship in real life because it seems like some of his acting is rubbing off onto her now.

Dana DeHaan who plays Jason seems to be up and coming star with alot of potential after turns in Chronicle, Lawless and the HBO series In Treatment his star can only seem to get brighter.

I swear Ray Liotta is in every kind of movie that comes out in recent years, he is very good here and shows that he can still be a strong support actor in a big movie come on  Hollywood what are you doing have you forgot Goodfellas.

Ben Mendelsohn once again steals every scene he's in, in this movie I can't say enough about this guy he is becoming one of those character actors that makes the movie that much better just by his name appearing on the screen and he gives the best line of the movie which is the same as the one I used as the tag line for it
"If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder"

I highly recommend this movie to everybody because Derek Cianfrance really did a great directing job here, I have yet to watch his previous film Blue Valentine but I will soon because he's a true filmmaker.

everyone in the cast is excellent which is a rare thing these days but with a couple films I've seen recently including this their is still hope for great acting and really stories being told even if their not big budget superhero blockbuster that are coming out right now, but I gave up a chance to go see Iron Man 3 or Star Trek Into Darkness and decided to see this instead and I'm glad I did because movies like this don't come around to often so I didn't want to miss the chance to see it.


MY RATING 9/10

CAST
Ryan Gosling- Luke
Bradley Cooper-Avery
Eva Mendes-Romina
Ben Mendelsohn- Robin
Rose Byrne-Jennifer
Dane DeHaan-Jason
Emory Cohen-AJ
Ray Liotta-Deluca
Mahershala Ali-Kofi