The Place Beyond the Pines

[Beate]

I was so so bored by this. All these good reviews had made me want to see this but it was annoyingly melodramatic and way too long. Gosling tatooed, with blond hair and terrible clothes looked ridiculous and the story just meandered and meandered, with that terrible soundtrack telling us "this is a worthy film". Too indie for me, sorry. Had a good snooze though at the end.

5/10

[Hellagood]

We were about 90% full in Liverpool tonight, and we did have a couple of people show up with allocated seat tickets, guess it must have been the same Odeon Points thing?
They didn't get their booked seats though as the cinema was pretty full by then.

Regarding the film, was a little disappointed I think. As mentioned above, the trailer (intentionally?) misrepresents the focus of the narrative. Couldn't really emotionally engage with the story as much as the director's previous work, Blue Valentine. Don't want to say more about the plot for fear of spoiling it for others...
Worth a watch, but a little unsatisfying 6.5/10

[deb1]

Just back from Glasgow seeing this tonight and although it could have been quite a compelling watch, it was far too long.
This was an interesting film but could have been much more enjoyable if it had got into the storyline a bit quicker.

[funthing29]

A wonderfully written, directed and acted piece of character drama. The pacing is a bit sluggish in places but this is an excellent piece of film-making. 8/10.

[raj101]

I don't know how Ryan Gosling's agent picks such winners for his man - film of the year so far, the last act being the only real weakness if it is that. oh, and people went too quickly from being ok to bad without full reasons.

The full punch of the movie is in its chameleon like shifting as it progresses. ...is it a cool Ryan Gosling anti-hero movie? No, hes not a hero hes a villain!... is it a heist movie? yes it is...erm...no its not! Its a ying yang movie! NO...its not (and what is a ying yang movie anyway). Such continued pendulum swinging as the clock ticks the years away.

Also probably Modern Western of the Decade, though its a combo of three classic Western plots. 9.5/10

Don't close your eyes for a moment, few scenes are wasted and use of the camera is scrupulous, for instance, shooting most of Ryan's speaking scenes on the right side of the screen and most of whatisnameHangoverhahaguy on the left side of the screen.

One thing that bothered me was the way people in the late 80s/early90s were depicted as dressed cool as anything (when guys that time really had bad haircuts and zero cool), but kids of today were depicted as scruffy messes (when thats blats not true, they spend hundreds of pounds on trying to look cool and metro these days). They got that the wrong way round.

And 'stoner kid' - how did he ever get through a day at school talking and walking the way he did. I'd have decked that kid every morning if he was at my school. He was just way too 2d.

[sikmansam]

Thought the first half was a lot better than the second, but this was still a complex, well-cast study in family relationships. Probably as emotionally draining as Blue Valentine but maybe not as good a film. 8/10

My review:

[yogi]

I was so so bored by this. All these good reviews had made me want to see this but it was annoyingly melodramatic and way too long. Gosling tatooed, with blond hair and terrible clothes looked ridiculous and the story just meandered and meandered, with that terrible soundtrack telling us "this is a worthy film". Too indie for me, sorry. Had a good snooze though at the end.

5/10

I agree. Meandering is a great description. I wouldn't be surprised if on the DVD there's 'bonus' footage of AJ's and Jason's kids and their stories and so on and so on for another hour or so!

There's probably a decent idea and some good performances in there, but it felt like hard work to watch it all slowly unfold.

[Livi92]

Bit of a cock up at Covent Garden with the ticketing. Screen was "full" at 6:05pm and so SFF members got turned away, while we waited for the premiere ticketholders... some of who duly turned up after the film started and so we had the distraction of people walking around in the dark looking for seats...

To the film, I enjoyed the first half of the film. Very punchy, lots of action and plenty of Gosling to go around The middle of the film dragged quite a bit and I found my wishing time would go by much faster... The film picked up though towards the end with all the teenage drama. I also didn't like who the two main actors were given half of the film each and didn't appear together. It seemed like an either/or choice, which there was no need for... the film would have been much better to have them both on screen together in my opinion.

6.5/10

[dovetail]

Saw this at Wimbledon tonight.....and felt profoundly depressed after the film. I was expecting a crime drama like Drive but certainly wasn't expecting this father/son greek tragedy. And what's with all the smoking?

7/10 when Ryan's in the movie...4/10 when he's not.

[caitlinmorton]

Incredibly clear three-act structure, and the end of the first act did well to shock me (and from the sound of it, most of the audience). The film did seem to be a lot longer than it was, so maybe a bit of a pacing issue, but overall I still quite enjoyed it. Agree with Livi92 though...wish Gosling and Cooper had more screen time together. And that Gosling had more screen time in general. :-P

Massive cock-up at Covent Garden though, I arrived at 6:05 and was only allowed entry because prettyxcool was an absolute angel and came out and told the staff she had a seat for me. Shame to all who got turned away, I had an empty seat next to me and saw at least a couple more. Spread out across my side of the auditorium, but still there.