The Place Beyond the Pines

Dans l'esprit d'Eastwood, de manière un peu plus lente, plus étendue, plus attentive aux personnages et intellectuellement plus complexe, ce film puissant parle des gens, de leurs actions et de leurs conséquences, de responsabilité, de culpabilité et de pardon. L'implication du spectateur dans l'histoire se renforce avec chaque segment de dix minutes qui s'ajoute. La musique est non conventionnelle, voire hypnotique - des chorales silencieuses qui donnent une profondeur tragique à la dernière partie du film, ajoutant une dimension fatale que Terrence Malick, dans ses derniers films, ne fait que simuler avec des chorales. J'étais impatient de voir Gosling, mais Cooper l'a éclipsé. Il livre ici sa meilleure performance jusqu'à présent, très intime. Je suis surpris que le producteur Sidney Kimmel n'ait pas fait plus de lobbying auprès de l'Académie, car c'est un film américain indépendant de dimensions leoneesques. (07/04/2014)

I have with this movie the same problem I had with Cianfrance’s previous one, Blue Valentine. Once again, the director-screenwriter attempts to present a broad indie social drama, but he’s unable to convincingly deliver and defend any of the conflicts that make the basis of the plot. As a result, the whole thing feels like disingenuous and manipulative stuff that wants to look important, and that’s all there is to it. In the first act it still works somehow, thanks mainly to Gosling’s charisma. Things start to grind in the second act, and the last act is, well, almost ridiculous. I’m very disappointed, I was really looking forward to it, but it seems that with Derek we don’t see eye-to-eye. 5/10 (10/05/2013)

An Iñárritu-esque movie in the form of a Kinder Surprise; it also offers three (un)similar things in one package. Tremendously powerful in many aspects; from the details like "wearing shabby t-shirts inside out" to building a dense atmosphere. What spoils the enthusiasm somewhat is the third act, which is not bad in itself, but still crouches deep in the shadow of the opening two acts. It is schematic, predictable, and somewhat didactic. Which, since it is meant to close the circle, is a little unfortunate. Quite a little bit. (17/03/2013)

With such a duo in the lead roles, it couldn't have turned out any other way. Bradley Cooper steals every scene with his brilliant performance without hesitation, and Ryan Gosling only needs one look for the motorcycles in the film to be different than before. These pine trees at first seem like a proper probe into souls on opposite sides of the barricade, like an excellent dramatic arc that I will be talking about for some time. But behind that stone in the stomach that dragged me down for over two hours, there is simply something more. And when the viewer lets a few pivotal moments pass before their eyes and connects them back into a single whole, it will shake you up at least one more time. (19/03/2013)

A powerful drama assembled from three interconnected lives. A raw, realistic story and precise directing highlighted by great acting. The movie loses its oomph a little when Ryan Gosling disappears from in front of the camera, but it still has a lot to say. The fourth star is for the great cross-country chases in the first third. (01/01/2014)

Just as raw and formally austere as the last Eastwood films (Gran Torino, Mystic River), or Haggis's Crash. Here, in addition, with a script and concept of certain scenes (mise-en-scène, lighting, editing, music) that are at a higher level than the examples mentioned above (similar to Fincher's Seven or Zodiac), with a fantastic atmosphere and above all a brilliant script that has no equal within the genre. Dense, suspenseful, completely unpredictable, without a single misstep, which is truly unheard of in today's mainstream Hollywood. And consider that it is very difficult to come up with something original given the number of films being made today. I must say that I have never seen anything like this before. If in Drive it was Ryan Gosling's cool jacket, here Gosling himself was cool and it doesn't end there, quite the opposite, which is one of the top moments of the film that you will get. It's a pity the ending is a bit weaker. I expected a bigger showdown. (25/08/2014)

Un film très spécial duquel je ne sais pas encore exactement quoi penser un jour après l’avoir vu. Ce film ne convenait sans doute pas à mon état d’esprit du moment. Si je l’avais vu à un autre moment et dans un autre état d’esprit, il m’aurait peut-être pris au cœur. Je ne comprends pas l’enchaînement des événements et l’alternance du rôle principal où les rênes passent entre trois, quatre personnages. Au final, c'est la composante musicale qui m'a le plus ému ; elle transmet une quantité considérable de mélancolie et de tristesse après ce qui se passe dans la première moitié du film. Note de bas de page : Comment le distributeur a-t-il pu publier un synopsis aussi farfelu ? (29/12/2022)

No, at the beginning it seemed like it would be a repeat of "Blue Valentine", more or less with the same cast, but in the end there was a significant twist. And then it continued in the style of the film "Blue Valentine". Director and screenwriter Derek Cianfrance has a gift for stories that breathe such a depression on you from the beginning that you won't be able to shake it off until the end. The world of his films has colors, only to quickly lose them and remain in dark shades. There is no hope here. Lives fall apart and you can't really do anything about it. (20/11/2013)

After a while, I thought Clint had pulled off this story split many times better in Changeling. If the whole movie had fleshed out the first part and been based on "Bradley chasing Ryan", it might have felt a lot more coherent in the end result. I'm not saying that the other two really separate stories don't make sense, but I had a definite problem with their delivery. If you’re supposed to take away from this that "all your shit will catch up with you one day anyway, and you can't escape it no matter how hard you try to be nice and human" then maybe let them, but for me it doesn't represent any kind of wisdom or "evocative movie experience". Blue Valentine was more intimate, more evocative, and a lot less intrusive. (18/08/2013)