The Place Beyond the Pines

No, at the beginning it seemed like it would be a repeat of "Blue Valentine", more or less with the same cast, but in the end there was a significant twist. And then it continued in the style of the film "Blue Valentine". Director and screenwriter Derek Cianfrance has a gift for stories that breathe such a depression on you from the beginning that you won't be able to shake it off until the end. The world of his films has colors, only to quickly lose them and remain in dark shades. There is no hope here. Lives fall apart and you can't really do anything about it. (11/20/2013)

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)

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)

An Iñárritu-esque movie in the form of a Kinder Surprise; it also offers three (un)similar things in one package. Tremendously powerful in many aspects; from the details like "wearing shabby t-shirts inside out" to building a dense atmosphere. What spoils the enthusiasm somewhat is the third act, which is not bad in itself, but still crouches deep in the shadow of the opening two acts. It is schematic, predictable, and somewhat didactic. Which, since it is meant to close the circle, is a little unfortunate. Quite a little bit. (03/16/2013)