The new film
from the director/actor team of Derek Cianfrance and Ryan Gosling is a heavy
and lengthy exploration of morality, ambition and fate. This might sound pretentious and vague but
the film is both a story of modern-family drama and a seething criticism of
corruption in the judiciary and executive branches of government, even if it is
simply an indie heist film.
The film
seems to have been heavily influenced by HBO-style American TV shows as the
plot is vaguely episodic and follows different characters for different
sections of the narrative. The film
starts with Luke (Gosling), a travelling motorcycle stunt man, finding out that
he has a son with Romina (Eva Mendes), an ex-‘flame’. He wants to provide for his son so decides to
stay local and gets a job with a local mechanic called Robin (Ben Mendelsohn)
who lives out in a deserted building out in the forest (beyond the pines). Together they begin to rob banks as Luke
tries to support his son and win back Romina.
This eventually gets him in trouble with an ambitious policeman called
Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) who has his eyes on a career in politics. The film then jumps fifteen years forward and
we see the interaction with Luke’s son Jason and Avery’s son AJ. Any more information would spoil the plot…
The main
theme of the film is fatherhood and paternal responsibility. There is a scene where Avery goes to ask for
his father’s help when he has a problem, and the film goes on to show the
trouble that young people can get themselves in without a healthy father-son
relationship. The females in the film
are reduced to wives and mothers and are constantly lied to and misunderstood
by the men.
The action
takes place in a sleepy town called Schenectady, New York and the surrounding
forest. Over time the locations, which
are revisited multiple times at key moments in the film, take on a larger
significance – the most important being the forest. In the forest is where secrets are kept and
uncovered. There are a number of picturesque
long shots of characters driving through the forest framed beautifully by Sean Bobbitt. The other
locations that are revisited multiple times are the small-town banks that Luke
robs. These moments in the film were
(apparently) shot in one take for added realism and then as he is followed by
the police the scenes feel like documentary footage from Cops, played out without any music and shot from inside
the windscreen of a car.
The film
ends on a lingering wide angle shot with a tiny American flag floating in the
wind. This final ironic frame is cut
beautifully with The Wolves (Act I & II) by Bon Iver, which left me stunned. I watched the entire credits sequence
thinking about the juxtaposition of the sense of entitlement and poverty in
America today. A masterful final image.
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