Have you heard of this movie? I hadn't when I went to see it. I don't want to say this a terrible movie. I want to say I didn't get. Was it too cerebral? Perhaps.
What the movie does is change perspectives twice. I don't mean it tells the same story from three different viewpoints. I mean it continues linearly, with no flashbacks, telling quite literally three very different stories.
<Spoilers ahead>
It starts with a motorcycle daredevil who finds out he has an infant son with an ex girlfriend. He turns to crime to support his new family (who incidentally hasn't welcomed him as openly as he welcomed them). On a chase, after a foiled escape, he gets killed by a police officer. The story then continues with the cop's perspective who up until this point has had 10 minutes of screen time. It's now about the police guy's issues with his department and his wife. Somewhere in the midst of all that there's another shift to 15 years later. Now the film is about the two men's adolescent sons, and their teenage problems with drugs and sex and high school drama.
<Spoilers end here>
It's all very ambitious but the loose ends don't really tie up. And boy did they pack it in: bank robberies, an expose of police corruption, a drug addled teenage party, a potpurri of plots.
You could say it is a movie that explores fatherhood. You could say it is about the role (or lack thereof) that nurture plays. You could say it's about life coming full circle.
All I'd say is that I didn't get it.
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| The Place Beyond the Pines is a 2013 American crime drama film directed by Derek Cianfrance written by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder. It has an 82% Critic Rating and a 79% Audience Rating on Rotten Tomatoes. |
<Spoilers ahead>
It starts with a motorcycle daredevil who finds out he has an infant son with an ex girlfriend. He turns to crime to support his new family (who incidentally hasn't welcomed him as openly as he welcomed them). On a chase, after a foiled escape, he gets killed by a police officer. The story then continues with the cop's perspective who up until this point has had 10 minutes of screen time. It's now about the police guy's issues with his department and his wife. Somewhere in the midst of all that there's another shift to 15 years later. Now the film is about the two men's adolescent sons, and their teenage problems with drugs and sex and high school drama.
<Spoilers end here>
It's all very ambitious but the loose ends don't really tie up. And boy did they pack it in: bank robberies, an expose of police corruption, a drug addled teenage party, a potpurri of plots.
You could say it is a movie that explores fatherhood. You could say it is about the role (or lack thereof) that nurture plays. You could say it's about life coming full circle.
All I'd say is that I didn't get it.
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