Place Beyond the Pines & Trance

The Place beyond the Pines (2013)

PbtP is a film based upon the father –son relation of 3 different families but all having connected pasts. It was directed by a fairly up-coming but still unknown director Derek Cianfreance, who also directed Blue Valentine, a short budget film of a couple’s relationship from the early moment of love, to a loveless marriage at middle age, with elegant time jumps between the two moments that does have to be admired by Cianfreance.

The main attraction for this film was the main protagonists’ of Ryan Gosling (who also was in Blue Valentine) and Bradley Cooper, both playing the role of a father who has a distant relation with their sons. Firstly we see Ryan Gosling’s lifestyle where he a stuntman for a moving rodeo and through these we found out that he has a child with Eva Mendes, but not being told until now. This progresses into Ryan choosing to divulge into a life of crime by robbing banks and proving to EM that he is capable of providing for her and his son. This then elegantly connects to an idealistic cop Bradley Cooper. The narrative then subtly leads into his life and how the case of Ryan Gosling affects him domestically and professionally. The delicate switches between Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and their two sons is a brilliant narrative technique used and Cianfreance really uses the effect of this interconnection of characters to create this sense of tension and corruption within all the households.

I think this is personally my favourite film of the spring term and think it only foreshadows great things for Derek Cianfreance and a possible trilogy of films accompanied with RG, who is exceptional in near enough most of his films. Bradley Cooper sustains his brilliance from Silver Linings and Eva Mendes... well the least said the better. It’s a sharp, charismatic film with a lot of soul with great performances and a stunning set-piece location of suburban New York.

 

Trance (2013)

Trance! This is Danny Boyle’s return to film after his successful Opening Ceremony directing. Well it’s safe to say he succeeds again with a dark and cunning story of hypnotism and deception. When watching the film, the feel is one watching Inception, Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind or in some ways, Vanilla Sky, only set in central London, so no folding cities unfortunately. However, in any case this films does maintain a feel of uncertainty and unawareness with new characters information slowing creeping into the narrative and piecing the narrative together like a jigsaw.

The plot starts with James McAvoy, an art auctioneer who gets caught up with a group who hope to steal a particular painting, he is entitled to steal it for them, but as always Mr McAvoy bumps his head and is then inflicted with memory problems. Leading from this, he is then sent by his group to a hypnotherapist to recover the location of the lost painting and this is then where the pleasurable mind manipulation takes place.

This film is not his best film, hard to knock Trainspotting and Sunshine of their shared #1 status. The acting is certainly admirable; I am a big fan of James McAvoy with his performance in X-Men First Class really proving his sophistication as an actor. But in Trance he really shows that archetypal Anti-Hero role that I fascinating in most films dating all the way back to Film Noir. Rosario Dawson plays her role to a very high standard, I’ll admit she had an annoying character in Sin City but so did the whole film, so hey. But her performance in films like this and Seven Pounds proves I need to give her a bit more respect as an actress. 

This film is an exciting watch as every scene is questioned for its realism and how the plot revolves around this uncertainty, definitely makes it a really enjoyable film even with stains of darkness, but come on, we all love a bit of darkness in our films.