A Place Beyond the Pines

— “A Place Beyond the Pines” is a remarkable film and much more than just another look at the relationship between fathers and sons. It’s also a look at the effect of a single choice, at what being a male seems to mean, at misjudgment, at corruption, at rebellion or acceptance, at receiving the sins of our fathers, and at fate. The film is divided roughly into thirds with the first third focusing mostly on the Ryan Gosling character, the second on the Bradley Cooper character, and the third on their sons 15 years later. The last third is the weakest and suffers from weaker actors and a tendency to seem to be tying up loose ends, but there’s no denying the effectiveness in terms of taking us from one generation of flawed characters to the next. This film is complicated, ambitious, and well worth seeing, and both Gosling and Cooper are superb.

---

[2012. 140 min. Directed by Derek Cianfrance. Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and Eva Mendes.]
http://movies.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/movies/the-place-beyond-the-pines-directed-by-derek-cianfrance.html?_r=0