Independent Crime Drama Weighs In on Hard-Hitting Consequences

Desperate times call for desperate measures as stuntman Luke robs banks to provide for his family.

What else can be said about the aura surrounding Derek Cianfrance's crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines other than simply calling it the most electric, impactful piece of cinema to hit theaters in the past twelve months, perhaps even longer? There are not many films out there that can say they firmly stay on the minds of audiences after the credits roll, however The Place Beyond the Pines takes that to another level completely with its masterfully crafted narrative that will keep audiences contemplating more than just a few hours afterwards.

In The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling plays Luke Glanton, a traveling carnival daredevil who finds his world turned upside down after he finds out his one night stand resulted in an infant son. With no way to amply provide for his only child, Glanton turns to a life of crime as the Moto Bandit, partnering up with a reclusive auto mechanic to hit up various local upstate New York banks.

The Place Beyond the Pines is one of those movies that demands to be seen knowing as little as humanly possible going in. Without the slightest warning, director Cianfrance is notorious for shifting narrative gears time and time again. And that's not a bad thing either. Always refreshing and energetic, The Place Beyond the Pines undertakes countless twists and turns that there's never a moment to even turn away from the screen once.

After starring in Cianfrance's 2010 film Blue Valentine, Gosling teams up with the director once more, unleashing his character Glanton as an charismatic bad boy clad in tattoos from head to toe and his signature Metallica T-shirt. Gosling tackles the character without a fault, understanding that he's genuinely one of the good guys who unfortunately is forced into a life of crime for the right reasons. In past performances, Gosling always dishes out subtly in his characters, but here in The Place Beyond the Pines, this low-key style still musters up a thrilling testosterone-heavy performance.

While Gosling runs the tables in The Place Beyond the Pines, his laundry list of co-stars also shine no matter how small or large of a performance Cianfrance bestows on them. The Hangover's Bradley Cooper shockingly shines as a rookie cop out to bring Clanton to justice even if his methods behind the madness aren't as kosher as they should seem. After his career-changing performances in last year's Silver Linings Playbook and now in The Place Beyond the Pines, Cooper proves his naysayers wrong now that he can go beyond the confines of buddy comedies.

Also along for the haul are Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Dane DeHaan, who each contribute beyond the ordinary expectations of transforming Pines into its fully circular story. Cianfrance's Pines is by far a well-oiled unit that works with every actor giving it his or her all, making the climatic payoff ever more impressionable than what audiences truly deserve. What should have been the run-of-the-mill crime drama transcends into a piece of cinema that defines what raw talent Cianfrance wields a director and his ensemble as dramatic actors.

The Place Beyond the Pines clocks in at a hefty 140 minutes, but it never comes off as weighed down or ambitiously out of control with its unrelenting bank robberies and motorcycle chases in the forest coupled with poignant character moments framed in a signature manner that takes time getting accustomed to. Beautifully shot and intensely edited, The Place Beyond the Pines never lets a dull moment get in the way of crafting eventful scenes with domino effect consequences. Once the chips begin the fall, there's no doubt that something massive is going down, maybe not in the most glitzy manner, but unquestionably the most extraordinary.

Despite 2013 starting off to an awfully weak slew of releases, The Place Beyond the Pines is the one movie that stands alone from the rest, accomplishing everything it set out to do and much, much more. It's about time a movie came along like Cianfrance's marvelous crime drama to pick up the pieces and possibly give hope for the remainder of the year.

GRADE: A+ (10/10)