Film Review: The Place Beyond The Pines (15), (U.S.A. 2012) (Director: Derek Cianfrance), Sunday 14.04.2013 14:30, The Cameo Cinema, Screen One, Edinburgh

This film was of interest as it re-teams Ryan Gosling & the director of 'Blue Valentine' (2011), which I was very impressed with.

At nearly two and a 1/2 hours, the film tried to compress too much into the running time resulting in all that was covered appearing slight and without any depth worth discussing. There appears to be a natural ending. This is then followed by an overlong '15 Years Later' section. The whole last part was completely unnecessary and overstretching. What the final section points out could have easily been alluded to in a more subtle manner before that point in the film, then the central adult characters could then have been given more focus and depth and the final (unnecessary) section dropped.

The point that the final unnecessary section makes is that, if you have children, your actions can easily live beyond you lifetime and go on to affect the lives of your children. - Woopiedoo. For a director to think this is a novel or significant point to make (as if most don't already realise this), suggest sadly that they are becoming pretentious. I have a sense that those involved in making the film saw it as an epic, which concerns. The film felt overly contrived & complex, very predictable the whole way through and ultimately dull. I was aware of feeling bored.

I now have more concern regarding this director and should be more cautious when it comes to their next release, and Ryan Gosling is running out of chances as well.

In comparison to Gangster Squad (1st film of the year to get 0/10 & also to star Ryan Gosling), this film thinks it is something more than it is, where as at least Gangster Squad, although bad enough to warrant a zero score, was dumb fun. I am having to give consideration to this score, as I feel as though I should grade higher, though I also know that it really does not deserve any praise at all.

Rating: 0/10.