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The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
Derek Cianfrance - Auteur Director
Derek Cianfrance's latest film is an investigation into masculinity, family, trauma, and the sins of the father being reflected in the actions of the son. While the film may be overlong and at times contrived, one thing that emerges from this film above all else is that Cianfrance is fast becoming a quality auteur director who may one day be regarded in the canon of deeply meditative filmmakers with Terrence Malick.
Gosling as the stripped-down stunt man plays the bank-robbing motorcyclist outlaw Luke Ganton who grows from the childish Driver of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive into a father with an almost sympathetic tunnel vision to provide for his child. The scenes with Gosling are expertly shot and provide us with the most realised insight into another of the mysterious characters that Gosling has been portraying recently. The opening scene in which Gosling walks through the carnival to the death cage where he will perform in an enclosed space for the public is a particularly brooding shot by the accomplished cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (who was responsible for some excellent scenes in Shame). We see his grimy tattooed back walk through the sticky lights of the rural carnival attractions. Incidentally, Gosling's back is proving to be a convincing place to tell a character's story, à la Drive.
Gosling isn't the only attraction of this meditation though, quite sooner than expected we peek inside Bradley Cooper's narrative and see events from his perspective. This switch is handled with shocking ease by Cianfrance who weaves the stories of two families and two generations together and shows us the sins of the masculine father from two perspectives. Cooper's performance is the standout spectacle of the film as he battles internally with seemingly immovable forces in the film. Cianfrance's statement about the nature of masculinity in the American family is fascinating to watch but for the contrived ending.
Cianfrance's film is at times Malickian, in that the director's central premise can be seen throughout the narrative. The film falls down in places but with time Derek Cianfrance will emerge as an auteur talent. Go see it. Ride the Lightning.