On Ambitious Filmmaking with The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines is something of an oxymoron insomuch as it is a high concept, low budget independent film. Derek Cianfrance’s first feature, the excellent Blue Valentine (2010) was the simple story of love from its origins to its demise. The film was remarkable for Cianfrance’s honest direction, the candidness of his script and the performances he drew from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.

 

Much of what was to be admired in Blue Valentine can be admired in The Place Beyond the Pines. This second feature is beautifully shot in 35mm and his script again manages to capture the brutal honesty of relationships. The acting is also superb. Where audiences may struggle with Beyond the Pines is in the ambition Cianfrance displays, which rather than projects the film forward, holds it back.

For a second feature, Beyond the Pines is a narrative that spans three generations all connected by massive coincidences and inextricably linked by the eponymous location the significance of which is never that clear.

A result of this multi stranded story, told via a triptych is that we never feel that connected to the characters; the connection we feel to them is forced, fake even. We know how we are meant to feel about them as Cianfrance’s mise-en-scene communicates so much, but the truth is we leave Beyond the Pines feeling impressed but empty. The audience are required to implant their own experiences into this film to make the characters really work and because of the reputation of the actors and the director many will do this and mistake it for genuine powerful filmmaking. This story of fathers and sons lacks authentic emotion and in this way it has the style but not the substance of Blue Valentine.