The Place Beyond the Pines movie review: Biting the hand that feeds you

Film: The Place Beyond the Pines

Release Date: April 12

Studio: Focus Features

Grade: A

Oh, how those tall pines crowd the landscape. They stand firm, glowing with a mixture of menace and tranquility. There's something about them that evokes uneasiness, acting on the audience without moving a morsel.

The pine trees of Schenectady, N.Y., - where The Place Beyond the Pines was shot on location - serve as background characters throughout key moments. A riveting chase scene will ensue or someone is forced to drive to a secluded place at gunpoint, and they always lead back to those daunting pines.

Director Derek Cianfrance - who made the spellbinding Blue Valentine three years back - manages to one up himself with this daring, overpowering, simply great film. It is a nearly flawless character study of desperate, working-class people clawing for survival in a dead-end society. Think of it as a non-cultural version of Crash, which also dealt with intertwining stories about everyday citizens forced to do the unthinkable in order to make ends meet.

Pines weaves its separate stories into three acts. The first opens to a spectacular long take following motorcycle daredevil Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling, Gangster Squad) around a festive carnival and into a small circus tent with a giant, metal sphere. Glanton mounts his cycle, clicks on his helmet and enters the sphere with two fellow riders looping around the inside of the metal deathtrap.

Glanton is a swell guy, but he's complicated. He wears tattoos shamelessly along his arms, torso and neck. He constantly pacifies his mouth with a cigarette because he likes to keep quiet and observe his surroundings. His clothes are tattered with holes. Glanton has baggage - baggage that's about to change his life instantaneously.

Enter Romina (Eva Mendes, Holy Motors), an old fling of Glanton's, who revisits him at his work. He, in turn, makes a surprise visit to her house the following day, only to discover his infant son, Jason. Fatherly instincts kick in, and soon Glanton tries to do right by his son and Romina by providing money at any cost - robbing banks, working on cars and so on.

The second storyline - also set in Schenectady - centers on rookie cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook). After a mishap, Cross is wrongly recognized as a public hero, and he tries to right his wrongs by involving himself with an investigation conducted by District Attorney Bill Killcullen (Bruce Greenwood, Flight).

The third act is a beautiful portrait that ties everything together, involving an older Jason (Dane DeHaan, Lincoln) and Cross' son, AJ (Emory Cohen, Four). Both suffer consequences of having imperfect fathers. They smoke pot, abuse pills and throw wild parties, basically not meshing well with the cards they've been dealt.

The horrifying truths brought to attention are impossible to overlook. The media labels Glanton a criminal, who violently acts out of confused kindness for his son. He only acts on instinct by robbing bank after bank, never harming anybody he doesn't have to.

Cross portrays the other side of that coin, showing the hardships from the justice angle. He aims to eradicate the corruptness within his unit, probably inspired by his father, Al Cross (Harris Yulin), a retired judge.

The acting is flawless all around. Gosling hits notes as an awkward, calculating hotshot the viewers automatically root for. One almost thinks it's a continuation of his character from Drive.

Cooper truly masters his craft here, never overplaying his boundaries as he does in his overrated performance in Silver Linings Playbook. His acting skill flows naturally through his eyes and his delivery of meaningful dialogue. Cooper's performance is the best of the film and should be restudied come Oscar time.

DeHaan crushes his challenging role after hitting a home run as the lead in the astonishing Chronicle. Newcomer Cohen is especially effective as a ruined adolescent lost in his father's footsteps. Greenwood is reliable as always, and Mendes supplies one of the best performances of her career as a helpless mother.

If The Place Beyond the Pines teaches anything, it's that everyone's actions eventually cause a reaction. In a deadbeat, working-class society, families aren't necessarily given time to think over their decisions, and instead they react compulsively. Parents are forced to think in the here and now, doing any deed to provide for their family without pondering the consequences down the road.

The very first and last shots say it all. The juxtaposition between the swinging switchblade in the beginning and the calm pines at the end is heart wrenching. Cianfrance effortlessly creates beauty from every shot to provide one of the most original, humane tales in recent cinema.

This is one of the best films of the year.

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