That Place Beyond the Pines

This weeks cinema outing would take me to see 'The Place Beyond The Pines', a much hyped spring movie starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper. The film is a vignette of three separate yet interconnected stories, all taking place in the town of Schenectady; New York. The film uses the format of three vignettes, each interconnected and set in the same place, the first is the story of a motorbike stunt rider, who discover he has a son that he never knew he had, and becomes a bank robber in order to support his child. The second story is of a cop who reveals corruption in the police force, the third vignette tells the tale of these men's two sons, who meet 15 years later.

The films title refers to the mohawk meaning for Scenectady, which is 'the place beyond the pine planes'. The filmmakers might think that the title sounds arty and poetic, when i think throughout the whole film i was simply looking for pine trees, of which there is not one, this makes the title very confusing whilst watching the movie, especially considering that a large part of the movie takes place in a wooded area of sycamore trees, making the title obnoxious and confusing to anyone who doesn't know it's meaning.

Another part of the film i dislike is the camera angles, I'm not one who usually gives much thought to the placement of the camera in a movie, except that when watching this film, i just want to scream; 'stop moving the freaking camera', thus this film suffers that same fate as Les Miserables, in that it is shot mainly on handheld cameras, giving the whole film a very personal feel, except that the shaking camera annoys me too much to allow me to see it as 'artistic'. The one redeeming feature of this movie is the acting, the film gives us strong performances form its three leads, with Eva Mendes performance as a standout, she gives us a fragile yet strong heroine, who has to struggle for her survival in a cruel world, and who early in the film has to fight with herself against her love for two different men.

In conclusion this film has lofty ambitions, yet fails to attain to its epic goals, however its strong performances from its leads, and the films interesting and tragic if confused plot all make this worth a see, even if ultimately the film falls short of its ambition, and leaves the audience confused, and with more questions, than answers. Rating: B-

Robin: If you ride like lightning, you're going to crash like thunder.