The Place Beyond the Pines Review

     The Place Beyond the Pines is a new drama that explores the complexities of relationships, and what it truly means to be family. Directed by Derek Cianfrance, the film stars Ryan Gosling as 'Handsome Luke' an amalgam of macho cliches, who finds out that he has a child with past lover Romina (played by Eva Mendes), and sets out to provide for his child through any means necessary. While the film offers a promising and powerful cast, can all the stories and characters come together into something meaningful? I give my full review after the jump.
     The Place Beyond the Pines is quite an experience, as it is able to evoke a level of emotion that many films aspire to, but all too often fail to reach. The film relies on the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of it's characters to drive the story, and they are ultimately what make the film so compelling to watch. This reliance on the characters means that the actors portraying them must not only be believable on screen, but absolute and actual, as if they could walk off screen and out into the world we live in, and this is certainly the case. 
     Ryan Gosling is electric and tragic as Luke, a man who can never quite seem to get it right in life. He has everything he ever thought it took to be a man, bulging biceps, tattoos that cut far more than skin deep, and a bike that rides faster than life, yet he still feels hollow. It takes a child for him to realize how pointless his old vices are when he discovers a fulfillment never felt before in his sense of commitment to his son. Gosling captures all of this so well, yet so simply.
     Eva Mendes plays Gosling's lover Romina, and their chemistry onscreen is incredibly real, likely due in part to their true romance behind the scenes. She vividly captures the internal conflict of bringing Luke back into her life, and her scenes are extremely impassioned. 
     As the cop whose life will inevitably converge with Luke, Bradley Cooper illustrates a level of acting far beyond a hangover, and continues to impress with his talent. Showing great range, Cooper's character is dynamic and changing, and extremely interesting to watch. Each character is as complex and flawed as the next, and watching how all of their lives intertwine is an exhilarating, engine-revving ride.
     Even the setting of Schenectady proves to be a character of it's own, it's unique contrasting combination of forest and cement jungle brings to life the characters, and is a believable backdrop for where they've conceived their hopes and dreams, or had them broken.
     The Place Beyond the Pines is an incredible and exhausting story of fathers and sons, sparing no details, it is a truly tragic yet somehow touching treat to watch. It shows while we are often all flawed in our own way, humanity often shines through, and we all find something to live for, in our own way.