The Place Beyond The Pines

I saw this film on the same day as Iron Man 3 and to put it very briefly, I enjoyed this film much more. Maybe it was that this was the first film I saw that day, or could have been the scale, story and ambition that this film had in abundance. It was by no means perfect, but as everyone says “no film is perfect”.

Pines is the second film from director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance, who gave us the bruising Blue Valentine in 2010. In this film we are given a generational story about fathers and sons, manhood and coming of age that underlines every action and plot point in the film. As with Valentine, Cianfrance has attracted an impressive cast that really helps to bring depth to every character, even those whose lives we only meet briefly.

Spoilers below.

One of the films biggest talking points and most ambitious elements is its structure. Arguably the film could be interpreted as having two, three or even four parts. This is down to two similarly substantial changes in each of the two time periods, which dramatically change the events and nature of the characters and the narrative.

To explain, the film is broken into two time periods, separated by a fifteen year time jump that occurs around two thirds of the way through the film. In the first part we follow, first Ryan Gosling’s Luke, a motorcycle stunt driver who takes to robbing banks to support his one year old son.  We then transition to Bradley Cooper’s Avery, a police officer who chases Luke down.

What makes Pines so interesting is that the two leading men only have one extended sequence together, other than that they spend no time together on camera.

Following the jump forward we meet each man’s son.  They both go to the same school and become friends. It is a coincidence, but by this point the film has earned that and it is never emphasised, it is down to luck, in much the same way that their fathers met.

As for the structure, the film is driven in its individual parts by the male leads of that chapter. Gosling is the first we meet, so it seems only right that we start there. Gosling gives one of his better performances, but it still feels forced and at times over acted as he tries to make this character come across as believable. It’s hard to say where it doesn’t feel right, or comes across as natural, there just seems to be a feeling that it isn’t completely working. He is light years better than he was in Drive, but not quite on the level of Half Nelson.

Quite simply, this is one of, if not the best performances I have ever seen Bradley Cooper give and tops off a great year for him with this and Silver Linings Playbook. The film picks up whenever he is on screen, as he deals with the press and police force following his heroics in his meeting with Luke.  Corruption is all around him as he tries to make sense of it and find a way out, one that benefits him. In the space of forty minutes, we see Cooper manage to drive this character through his arc and evolve before our eyes. It is undoubtedly his character and actions that anchor and centre the film. A lesser performance would have caused the films third act pay off to fall flat and all of its stakes to fade.

Finally the two sons are played by Dane DeHaan (Luke’s son) and Emory Cohen (Avery’s son), some people have argued that this section is the film’s strongest section and has the most interesting characters. Maybe this is true because we get to see the consequences and conclusion to everything that has come before with their fathers, as well as the end of the own story.

Cohen as AJ, gives a flamboyant, arrogant performance that fits with his cocky snide character who you at first like, but quickly start to dislike and then ultimately downright dis-guard. DeHaan as Jason is a much subtler subdued character, playing a working class down trodden young man who seems to find life a struggle, despite the home he comes from, where his stepfather has done everything he can bring Jason up properly, something his father could have never done.

It may have been given an odd release date, post awards and next to one of the summers biggest releases, but this is one film that shouldn’t be missed and definitely experienced on a big screen.

Iron Man 3

No. No. No. No. No. 

This was pretty much my reaction upon the credits rolling at the end of this film, it was a film that didn’t deliver and seemed more interested in clever one liners and jokes than telling any kind of interesting story.

Spoilers beyond this point!

Iron Man 3, is the first film after last years mammoth release The Avengers which brought together it’ four main heroes and few secondary ones (where they were during the events of this film is an issue, don’t let fan boys tell you it isn’t) and made around $1.5bn. It’s also, obviously, the third in the Iron Man series. A franchise that after a great opening instalment, failed to deliver or evolve in its sequel Iron Man 2, which became more of a two hour commercial for the rest of Marvels Cinematic Universe. So there was a real need for this franchise to get back to it’s earlier form.

Let’s start with the good parts of Iron Man 3, Robert Downey Jr is superbly entertaining as usual, delivering numerous one liners that pepper the script with perfect precision both in terms of timing and the tone needed to carry them off. He makes the best of a somewhat sloppy central arc, adding much more to it through his look and physical state than the dead on dialogue that he has to deliver.

It’s going to be hard for Marvel to find a replacement for Downey Jr, if he decides enough is enough with this character and series, and judging by the weariness that seems to be on show with the series as a whole, that day may not be far off.

Bin Kingsley and Guy Pearce give solid if somewhat standard performances as the villain, its seems as though like Mickey Rourke in the previous film, they weren’t given enough time to really capitalize or fully build there characters. Which is a shame, considering how charismatic Pearce is, and how superb Kingsley is as the Mandarin. Pearce’s few scenes with Paltrow are some of the most sinister of all the Marvels films, it’s a shame we weren’t given more of it.

Unfortunately that is pretty much where the good ends, yes the effects are good, but that is never something that a film of this size should ever hang its appeal on. The overall plot of the film is muddled, we have Tony trying to solve a mystery and Rhodes hunting down the Mandarin, or if two scenes can really be construed as a hunt. A lot of time is given to character moments with Tony, but its most definitely at the expense of the film, jokes are strong in the short term, but not when they restrict the pace or drive of the main narrative. As opposed to it being an action film with some comedy, it ends up as a comedy with action set pieces once in a while.

The set pieces in themselves are relatively low key and passive, maybe with the exception of the CGI filled finale that sprawls through a port, aided by the convenience of multiple suits to sustain the little tension there was . The best set piece is set in a small Tennessee town, where Tony doesn’t have any of his technology and must out think the people chasing him. In fact, this is probably the best action sequence in which Iron Man has finished, it actually has a sense of peril and tangibility that all the others didn’t.

Major Spoilers from here on!

I am no Iron Man enthusiast, I’ll admit this now in case these are true and accurate interpretations of these characters.

Now we get to the two biggest problems I had with the film, the first was the grand plan, or even the motivation for the main villain Killian (Pearce) had, as it seemed to involve getting revenge on the President for some ship sinking and spilling oil everywhere, but no “fat cats” facing a day in court. This is revealed within the last 20 minutes, but no reference to this event has been made to the ship or incident in the previous 110 minutes. I’m not if this is some kind of reference to do with the BP disaster a few years ago, but if it is, it’s a very poor one and should have probably been left out.

The twists, there are two of them, let’s get to the more conventional and the one that didn’t kill the film. Killian has been developing the extremis program, something that helps in limb restoration and basically promotes people to have almost superhuman abilities, regarding strength and regeneration. The president I assume is against it, as one of his cabinet appears to be in league with Killian, because what is either his daughter or granddaughter is missing a limb. So he is obviously pro-extremis.

This second twist, although I think occurs just before the above one completely killed the film for me, taking any momentum from that particular storyline and character. It involves the reveal of the Mandarin being nothing more than an English actor playing a role, the reasoning for it is fairly solid that Killian gives, but the actual reveal is played for laughs and yes RDJ and Kingsley are very good, but the Mandarin was shaping up to be an interesting villain. But instead he is jettisoned along with what could have been an interesting dynamic between him and Killian. Oh well, a cheap laugh is better than an interesting character.

Spoilers end.

Shane Black is a great writer and director and if you want to see him and RDJ on top form, go and buy Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it’s so much better than Iron Man 3, more exciting, amusing and with one of RDJ’s best performances.

If this is how Marvel are launching Phase Two, then bar Thor: The Dark World, you can count me out of the rest of this. They are creating a brand of their own within the comic book genre, one of mediocrity and no ambition (Thor excluded).

Honestly, give it a miss, the man of iron is dulled and boring, we need a Man of Steel.