The Circle is Complete : The Place Beyond The Pines

When the first still of the film came out last year, I thought this film would be Drive on two wheels and naturally I was super excited for this film. But The Place Beyond The Pines turned out to be a completely different kind of a beast.

Directed by Derek Cianfrance known for the bleak romance in 2010's Blue Valentine (in which Gosling also starred), Pines also shares much of its realistic grittiness and again a rather unique structure (The Courting & The Parting). 

Pines tells its story in a three act (or chapters?) structure, and each chapters introduce new protagonists.

The first chapter, follows Stuntman Luke Glanton (Gosling), who works at a fair, performing death defying stunts on a motorbike across the country, and he never stays long  in one place, always on the move, never settling down. Everything changes when an old flame, Wilhelmina (Eva Mendes) returns to the picture with an infant son (Jason) from their relationship when he was last in town. Determined to be a part of his son's life, in order to not repeat his own Father's non-presence, Luke decides to settle down, and takes up a low paying job. But, wanting to provide for his son and win Wilhelmina back, Luke decides to turn to bank robbing after a friend, Robin (Ben Mendelhson) (an occasional back robber himself) advised him to do so.

The second chapter, follows the story of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), a rookie cop turned hero after being injured in the line of duty and putting an end to Luke's bank robbing's career. Avery as we learned later on, is overqualified for his job, and is being constantly pushed into politics by his Politician's Father.  With his injury preventing him from working in the field, Avery is reassigned into evidence and discovered a corruption within the Police Department. 

The third chapter is set 15 Years after the first and second and follow Avery and Luke's teenage sons (A.J & Jason played by Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan respectively), as they deal with their own respective father issues. 

The only drawback to this film is only that the second and last chapter are not as gripping as the first.  With chapter two being the weakest of the three. The last chapter is particularly brilliant at drawing parallels between the two sons and their respective fathers, and bringing the story to a complete circle.  There is nothing fancy or heavily stylised about the look of the film, it looks natural, real, bleak yet dreamy. The haunting score composed by Mike Patton is also very well done. Every single actors gave great performances in their respective roles (especially Gosling, Ben Mendelhson, and Emory Cohen). 

Overall, a truly great piece of cinema and I am sure this film will remain in my top three by the end of the year, as of right now, this is my favourite film of the year. 

4.5/5