Derek Cianfrance is turning out to be one of the greatest of
modern serious filmmakers. In his last film Blue
Valentine, he got superb, career-changing performances from Ryan Gosling
and Michelle Williams as a couple who fall in love and learn to hate each
other. It is one of the more brutal movie experiences I’ve seen. His new movie The Place beyond the Pines is much
easier to watch, but no less great. It again stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle
stuntman who quits his job when he discovers that a former girlfriend (Eva
Mendes) has had his child. He is determined to look out for his baby, despite
her repeated rejections of him, and ultimately begins robbing banks to support
them. Living a parallel life in the same city is a cop played by Bradley
Cooper, and these two men’s lives cross in a bold way that you almost certainly
won’t see coming.
This is an incredible movie to watch if you’re a fan of
technical cinema. Cianfrance knows where to put his camera, how to move it and
how long to sustain it. Unlike most Hollywood movies these days, the placement
of the camera in this film is almost as important to its success as what it’s
shooting, and I don’t think there’s a moment in the whole production that isn’t
framed beautifully and with great purpose. Take the opening scene: a long,
unbroken tracking shot of Gosling walking through the carnival at which he
works, covering a great deal of ground, withholding his identity until the very
end. It reminded me of a similarly ambitious stunt that Orson Welles pulled at
the beginning of his controversial Touch
of Evil. Cianfrance has a lot of Welles’ tenacity and I sense a hint of ego
too. One of the side effects of being a genius is being aware of it.
Both Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper continue to prove
themselves as top-tier stars and actors by giving great performances here that
are startling to say the least. I hear that Gosling requested that his bank
robbery scenes be shot in one take. Watch them carefully. Notice the crack in
his voice and the shaking in his hand. Either the actor was truly terrified or
he was extremely convincing. Cooper opened my eyes to his talents last year in Silver Linings Playbook and shows even
more power and restraint here. Even Eva Mendes, who usually associates herself
with intentionally stupid comedies and cheesy romances, has a quiet and subtle
presence that could easily go unnoticed. Cianfrance has a tendency to say more
with his camera than what the actors can say themselves, and we often learn
about the characters through a simple study of their demeanors, an essential dramatic
allowance for which most movies don’t have the patience.
The Place beyond the
Pines is everything a great movie should be: original, captivating,
thrilling, contemplative and alluring. It is a movie that actually has a reason
for existing, with a complete story to tell. The characters are well-written
and deserving of its actors, who I assume enjoy being in films like this where
they actually have something to do more than in stuff like Crazy Stupid Love or The
Hangover Part II. Above all else, Cianfrance clearly adores his medium and
has created a modern masterpiece that may not be a huge hit today, but will
have to be rediscovered and studied in years to come.
10/10
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