The Place Beyond the Pines

I have with this movie the same problem I had with Cianfrance’s previous one, Blue Valentine. Once again, the director-screenwriter attempts to present a broad indie social drama, but he’s unable to convincingly deliver and defend any of the conflicts that make the basis of the plot. As a result, the whole thing feels like disingenuous and manipulative stuff that wants to look important, and that’s all there is to it. In the first act it still works somehow, thanks mainly to Gosling’s charisma. Things start to grind in the second act, and the last act is, well, almost ridiculous. I’m very disappointed, I was really looking forward to it, but it seems that with Derek we don’t see eye-to-eye. 5/10 (05/10/2013)

Just as raw and formally austere as the last Eastwood films (Gran Torino, Mystic River), or Haggis's Crash. Here, in addition, with a script and concept of certain scenes (mise-en-scène, lighting, editing, music) that are at a higher level than the examples mentioned above (similar to Fincher's Seven or Zodiac), with a fantastic atmosphere and above all a brilliant script that has no equal within the genre. Dense, suspenseful, completely unpredictable, without a single misstep, which is truly unheard of in today's mainstream Hollywood. And consider that it is very difficult to come up with something original given the number of films being made today. I must say that I have never seen anything like this before. If in Drive it was Ryan Gosling's cool jacket, here Gosling himself was cool and it doesn't end there, quite the opposite, which is one of the top moments of the film that you will get. It's a pity the ending is a bit weaker. I expected a bigger showdown. (08/24/2014)

One of those American fateful films with big Hollywood actors that are not made much anymore. When they are, it's one or two films a year at most. Probably, screenwriters just don't come up with stories telling someone's life over decades anymore. After all, coming up with such a family story full of tragic events today would be quite challenging for anyone. But I liked Beyond the Pine Forest. It's just a shame that there are actually two different stories breaking here. Ryan Gosling shines in one, and when you start to like him, suddenly you have Dane DeHaan on the scene, who immediately takes over the screen for himself. A bit uneven, it might piss off someone in terms of writing, but thinking about the context of the whole movie, it's a very interesting piece. (06/30/2021)

A powerful drama assembled from three interconnected lives. A raw, realistic story and precise directing highlighted by great acting. The movie loses its oomph a little when Ryan Gosling disappears from in front of the camera, but it still has a lot to say. The fourth star is for the great cross-country chases in the first third. (01/01/2014)

The mood of this film is in the spirit of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River mixed with Ben Affleck’s The Town, but slower, more extensive, more attentive to the characters and with more layers of thought. It is a powerful film about people, actions and consequences, responsibility, guilt and forgiveness. The viewer’s engagement in the story deepens with every tenminute increment. Its music is unconventional, even hypnotic – the silent chants used as the background to the last quarter of the film lend it, in the context of a culminating relationship collision, the fateful depth that Terrence Malick’s recent films only pretend to have by using similar chants. I was looking forward to seeing Ryan Gosling, but Bradley Cooper overshadowed him by delivering his best, most intimate performance to date. I am surprised that producer Sidney Kimmel didn’t do more lobbying at the Academy, because this is an independent American film at the level of Sergio Leone. (04/07/2014)