THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (2012)

Rated: R

Stars: Ryan Gosling,  Bradley Cooper,  Eva Mendes,  Ray Liota,  Ben Mendelsohn,  Dane DeHaan,  Emory Cohen

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Genre: Drama



The first thing you should know about The Place Beyond The Pines is that it's too long.  Just in case you have a hairdresser appointment later in the day--you're going to have to furtively call on the cell phone you're not supposed to use in the theater and reschedule it. That's how long the movie is. 

But you get Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper in the same film, so quit yer bellyachin!  These are two leading men, so ya gotta wonder...hmmm...how they gonna work this?  No problem--the first half of the movie belongs to Gosling,  and the second half belongs to Cooper. Probably the only way the two of them would agree to being in the same film together. 

So when I say The Place Beyond The Pines is essentially presented in two acts--and if you want to get technical, three acts--you can begin to understand why it's too long. The end of the first act is disconcerting, because you start to think it's the end of the movie, and you're saying, well, that was kinda short! Then you realize (if you are me) that the first part is a prologue  to the rest of the movie, which then takes off in another direction. So you hunker down for the rest of it, not knowing until near the end how it is all connected. And it is all connected...the movie just takes its time getting there.

The reason I'm speaking in generalities is because you can't go that far in describing the plot without giving too much away. But I'll give you this:   Luke (Gosling) is a motorcycle stunt driver working for the carnival.  One night after the show he is approached by former one-night-stand Romina, (Eva Mendes) who clues him in that he is now a papa. Instead of moving on with the carnival, Luke decides to hang around  and try to become  a presence in his son's life, which will be difficult because Romina is living with another guy. This is the first stupid thing Luke does. The second stupid thing is he becomes a bank robber to get some cash to lavish upon Romina and the boy. For a while it's easy money because Luke goes zoom zoom on his bike and gets away fast. But it's incredible just how stupid this guy is, and he is going to meet his match in young cop Avery Cross (Cooper). Avery also has a young son, and that is going to factor significantly into the rest of the plot .

 Fast forward fifteen years, and A Place Beyond The Pines becomes Avery's story. He has parlayed being a hero cop into a burgeoning political career for himself.  But kids are always acting out and embarrassing the folks, and Avery's teenage son, A.J., (Emory Cohen, as a young Brando type--he's one to watch) and Luke's teenage son, Jason, (Dane DeHaan) are going to carry forth the connection between Luke and Avery by proxy.  DAMN...now looka there...you've already made me tell you more than I wanted to.  STOP TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ME !    

Notable performances from Gosling and Cooper, but director Derek Cianfrance must have gotten so caught up in the intricacies of the plot that he forgot a few minor details--like aging the adult characters a little after that fifteen year skip forward. They all look the same. He DID remember to age the two boys--because...uh...they were just toddlers in the beginning--so that was some clear thinking there. 

Anyway, the  main thing I took away from The Place Beyond The Pines is that stupidity runs in the genes, and it often passes down through the generations. 

Oh, and did I mention it's kinda long?


Grade:  B--

DATE NIGHT (PG-13)

Stars: Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg

Director: Shawn Levy

Created as a vehicle for two of our superstars of comedy, Date Night is a fairly enjoyable romp through familiar cinematic territory: The shady doings of politicians, unscrupulous police officers, and some hapless folks who inadvertently find themselves caught up in the shenanigans that ensue--somehow calling upon that inner wellspring of bravery and resourcefulness they didn't know they possessed until their lives were on the line, turning the situation to their advantage in the end.

Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are fun to watch as Phil and Claire Foster, an upscale New Jersey couple who try their best to keep their relationship from falling into that abyss of tedium and boring routine--out on a date to a pretentious, overpriced restaurant where they can't get seated, so they pose as the Tripplehorns, a couple who didn't show up to claim their reservation. This fairly innocent fudging of the truth--the kind of thing I suspect we've all done at one time or another--sets in motion a chain reaction of events that will have our couple dodging the bad guys (who've mistaken them for the real Tripplehorns--a shady couple who have some embarrassing and incriminating stuff on a flash drive that could bring down the local District Attorney were it made public) for the rest of the movie.

Good cops, bad cops, a crime boss who has bought off a bunch of them, (played by Ray Liotta, of course) and the ever shirtless Mark Wahlberg as a security expert the Fosters enlist as their ally, add to the harrowing fun of Date Night.

There's more potty-mouth in Date Night (most of it in hilarious context) than what you'd expect from a PG-13 rating, which is weird because many of the R-rated flicks I've seen lately have been rather tame in that respect, (as well as with the T&A) whereas several of the PG-13s have been unexpectedly raunchy. To which, conspiracy theorists, I'm attributing to an eventual melding of the two categories into something that would be called "RPG," or "PGR," or perhaps more accurately: B-I-T-S-- for BUTTS IN THE SEATS--which is the name of the game in Hollywood.

GRADE: B