The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines: Powerful

‎2hr 20min‎ - ‎Rated R‎ - ‎Drama‎

Going into this film I wasn't really expecting much but that default Ryan Gosling film we seem to get anymore. The silent romantic killer type, which I don't mind. He does a good job in his films and yes this is another one, but it's damn good. The story is simple, Guy sees a girl he had a past with. Guy finds out he has a child, guy has no money but wants to help. This is mostly the first hour of the film. Ryan and (in real life girlfriend) Eva Mendes are a great onscreen couple. They play off of each other nicely. The film also is shoot beautifully and the film as a whole just feels tight and well made. There are these shots with Ryan on his bike that are not anything special but it comes off just fantastic.

The only real issue with this film is the running time. For a 140min film the first hr and a half go quite fast, its the last 50mins of what kills the film for me. 

Look at the film like this, its 3 in 1. The first film is all Ryan. The second is with Bradley Cooper, the third-well lets keep that under wraps.  If I told you any of it, I would spoil something that you should find out when watching the film. Bradley Cooper does a great job as well with his screen time  I think I was more impressed with him here then his past films. He also shares the screen with Ray Liotta, who, yep you guessed it plays... a baddie.

There is this "silver lining" (If I can) throughout the film which helps this film wrap up nicely. But like I said earlier could of been a bit shorter. The ending could of lost a solid 20mins. The whole film is nicely packaged till this point. But then feels as if they jammed every idea they had and couldn't let any of it go. Otherwise it's a lovely film, one I think a lot of people will like.

Acting is great. Directing and DP are great. Running time just needs to be shorten a bit.