The Place Beyond the Pines

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. (07/04/2014)

With such a duo in the lead roles, it couldn't have turned out any other way. Bradley Cooper steals every scene with his brilliant performance without hesitation, and Ryan Gosling only needs one look for the motorcycles in the film to be different than before. These pine trees at first seem like a proper probe into souls on opposite sides of the barricade, like an excellent dramatic arc that I will be talking about for some time. But behind that stone in the stomach that dragged me down for over two hours, there is simply something more. And when the viewer lets a few pivotal moments pass before their eyes and connects them back into a single whole, it will shake you up at least one more time. (18/03/2013)

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. (20/11/2013)

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. (16/03/2013)