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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The Place Beyond the Pines starts out following Luke Glanton, a stuntman who turns to robbing banks to support his former lover and her baby. Then, for the second act, the focus abruptly shifts to Avery Cross, an ambitious detective in a corrupt precinct. And then the third act follows Avery's son fifteen years later.
When I first read the plot summary for this movie, I was expecting the stories of the detective and the criminal to be told in parallel. But instead, it tells three entirely separate stories one after the other. So imagine my confusion when Ryan Gosling's storyline ended abruptly early in the film, and Bradley Cooper's storyline was then resolved equally quickly!
It may be because of this story layout that the movie felt very long indeed. It's 134 minutes, but it feels more like three hours! It has a rather slow, methodical pace, so each section feels like a whole movie in itself.
Not to mention, each story is less interesting than the last. Despite Ryan Gosling's characteristically wooden performance, his character is such a good parent that I really did start to root for him and felt he should absolutely be a part of the baby's life. But, on the other hand, I couldn't care less about Avery's son's story, centred around drugs.
In short, while it's well written and does have its moments, on the whole, its jarring narrative structure makes it seem increasingly longwinded.
My rating: 60%
