Letterboxd — Your life in film

I literally booked a day off work, using up one of my annual leave days, purely to go and see this film in the cinema on the last day it was showing there. Something about it, I don't know what, but something made me think it would be right up my street.

It was. Excuse my Partridgism, but I ruddy loved it, I really did.

I saw it on Wednesday and it's been playing on my mind ever since. Looking at the narrative structure, for instance, and the way that it glides from one section to the next so flawlessly, so effectively, it makes it seem like a privilege to have seen each segment. Each part crafts its own identity that still flows into the other bits so well. The impact each part had on me was profound and stayed with me.

The parts fit together so well that it doesn't matter whether you prefer the first third, or the second, or the final, because one thing that's universal is each bit is brilliant. Having said that! I preferred the first part with Ryan Gosling (in probably his best role I've seen (until I watched Blue Valentine the next day, that is)) and his relationship to Eva Mendes. It takes up most of the running time to the film, but I was so caught up in it that the time flew by.

As a tale of human life, from endurance, compassion, love, belonging (or lack thereof), plus everything that could be seen as "the bad stuff" too like violence, deceit, theft, hate, all roll into one exquisite film, makes me realise what an achievement The Place Beyond The Pines is. A remarkable film. The more I think about it, the more I think that it probably is my favourite film of the year so far.

Not half as bad as I'd been led to believe. I'm not just referring to film reviews / comments being misleading, but even the trailer itself made the film look like predictable, clichéd, typical British gangster bilge.

However, whilst it was full of clichés, and in many ways it was very typical, it's also what I ended up liking about it.

I'd be lying if I said I was going to accurately compare it to The Sweeney TV show as I've hardly ever seen more than about 2 episodes worth! But what this film has done is capture that essence of quintessentially British cop shows and modernised it. Ray Winstone is gruff, he's obnoxious and in a funny sort of way, an endearing character. His rough, deep, passive-aggressive whispering tones as he barks commands (and swears a lot) are exactly what was expected of him, but he does it so well. I have a certain amount of respect for an actor who can play up to his own strengths in such an obvious way yet get away with it. He puts in a proper shift.

The plot itself was relatively low key, but again that's what I liked about it. It embraces the kind of shows the film is born out of, and attempts to do something bigger with it. The fact that the big climactic car chase was around a static caravan park highlights this perfectly. It is, after all, a buddy-cops and robbers story set in Britain.

Yes, it had faults. Yes, it set boundaries relatively early on that it never really broke through. Yes, it only had one note, but it maintained that pace throughout, with a not-unexciting plot and for that, I'd quite like to see more. Something I didn't expect going into the movie!