Ryan Gosling tattoos blond The Place Beyond the Pines poster blue triangle

The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines

director on the creation

Play

filmOA | review

If this were “one of those movies”, it would begin with some pretentious quote by Oscar Wilde about children. Something like: children start by loving their parents, later they sometimes forgive them. But that wouldn’t be a movie by director Derek Cianfrance. He lets you experience it.

Did you ever go to a movie where everybody would start clapping right after the movie ended? It would be totally clear what had just happened. Everybody had digested the movie, knew what it was and what it meant to them. Yes? Great. Now imagine the opposite. The movie has ended. The room is silent and everyone is still perplexed by all that just happened. That’s more like what happened after The Place Beyond the Pines.

The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie that lingers. It’s a big story, maybe too big for its own good sometimes — which makes it 2 hours and 20 minutes long. But it’s definitely one of those movies that makes you reflect on life. It’s a movie about fathers and sons and the inevitable result of their relationship. No wonder, since director Derek Cianfrance’s wife was pregnant when he was writing this movie. And he was constantly thinking about becoming a father to his second son. And what effect his father had on him.

We start of with Ryan Gosling who works in a traveling carnival as a motorcycle daredevil with groupies. He’s not very talkative, like his character in Drive. He’s covered in tattoos. On his right hand it reads H-A-N-D across his fingers. On the left S-O-M-E. He meets up with a girl he has hooked up with before, played by Eva Mendes. She soon tells him she had his baby. But when he quits the circus and says he’s gonna take care of her, she doesn’t take him too seriously. And to get the money to make her take him seriously, he plans to rob a bank on his motorcycle.

The cast of The Place Beyond the Pines is impeccable. All get their fair share of key scenes. From last year’s Killing Them Softly Ben Mendelsohn to Ryan Gosling as motorcyclist Luke. Mixed with visually stunning scenes, a lot of them shot in one sequence, and an ambitious script, this might be the best indie this year. filmOA end logo


The Place Beyond the Pines is out now (US). + more dates
filmOA | score

Cast

9

Visuals

8

Locations

7

Story

8

Dialogs

8

Impact

9

review score 82 half circle

82%

worth the popcorn

Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes baby Place Beyond the Pines film Ryan Gosling hug The Place Beyond the Pines film Ryan Gosling motorcycle hoodie Place Beyond the Pines film Bradley Cooper and Emory Cohen in The Place Beyond the Pines Ray Liotta dirty cop Deluca in The Place Beyond the Pines
Discuss The Place Beyond the Pines

Twitter