The Place Beyond the Pines 2013

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Structured as a triptych, the movie is novelistic, earnest and somewhat exhausting - an ambitious effort that tries to be many things. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Each chapter of The Place Beyond the Pines gets successively less interesting than the last ... Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: If, in the end, the film can't quite sustain its epic vision, it does, along the way, achieve the density and momentum of a good novel. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The segments are essentially monodramas, so sketchily written that the big moments feel less like recognizable human behavior than recognizable screenwriter overreaching. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Mr. Cianfrance's artistic vision catapults it above the limitations of contrivance and into a realm of constantly evolving shifts of tone and mood. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: For the most part ... this is self-serious stuff, seething with ambition but almost devoid of spontaneity, and ultimately drained of genuine energy. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's one of the best and most ambitious films of the year. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: [A] thoughtful and often powerful film ... Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: To the film's credit, it's damn near impossible to imagine where The Place Beyond The Pines will end based on where it begins, even though its ever-widening scope causes it to lose some of the grubby intensity of its early scenes. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Fine, fine, it's an epic. Now let us up for air, please. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: ''The Place Beyond the Pines'' aims admirably for an epic sense of Greek tragedy, and it does have some powerful individual moments, but the characters are all so underdeveloped that the whole effort feels like studied posturing. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Cianfrance hasn't figured out what he wants to say, but he spends a lot of time and energy trying to say it. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This naturalistic drama is ambitious to the point of being unwieldy... But once the story has advanced from one generation to the next and its thematic sweep has become apparent, these flaws seem much more tolerable. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: You watch what happens, often dreading the worst. Even when the worst comes, though, it comes with honor and a kind of grace. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: With the arrival of The Place Beyond the Pines, the American dramatic film has found a loyal, gifted advocate in director Derek Cianfrance. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: "Pines" is hardy stuff, but it's at its toughest when Gosling's on screen. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: The Place Beyond the Pines wants to be a deep-dish meditation on fathers, sons, and the consequences of the decisions we make. But it's a slow-burner that burns so slowly its wick completely fizzles out. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: There is true beauty in the despair that pervades "The Place Beyond The Pines." Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: What Cianfrance has written has scraps of surprise and a fine chase sequence, but it doesn't reach for the stars or the emotional cosmos -- or, at least, it doesn't know how to get there. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A somber and striking drama that takes some wrong turns but features a charismatic performance from Ryan Gosling in the leanest and best of its three sections. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The movie is intimate in its telling, sweeping in its issues and stumbles only occasionally. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The Place Beyond the Pines is hackneyed and dull: Not a single moment rings true. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: If there are better films this year, then we are in luck. If it opened in December it would seem a major event. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Its three stories are so loosely connected, its themes so scattered -- morality, justice, fate, fatherhood -- that it never manages to make a point. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The movie, which holds your attention from moment to moment, by the end leaves you grasping for the experience you haven't had. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Its ambitions - even its unrealized ones - are a great part of its power. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This emotionally ambitious mess has faults to spare, but there's also something fuzzily honest about it. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This is a big movie with a lot on its mind. Slowly, it unfolds into a kind of epic. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: This is a story about legacy, the sins of the father, the restlessness in our souls. It's powerful, it's bold, it hits you hard. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Although The Place Beyond the Pines is not an unqualified success, when Cianfrance stumbles, it's because he's reaching for greatness ... Read more

Simon Abrams, Chicago Sun-Times: An over-stuffed, hyper-pulpy, and mostly trite trifurcated drama about family, crime, and moral ambiguity. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: "The Place Beyond the Pines" earns every second of its 140-minute running time. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: [The Place Beyond The Pines] a beast of a movie, an emotional roller coaster that threatens to go off the rails, and does. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The movie looks great throughout, blending action, urban drama and family melodrama with a dark, thrumming undertone that holds them together. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: With more than 50 speaking roles, the film easily could have sprawled out of control into a predictable epic. But "The Place Beyond the Pines" holds enough intimacy - and surprise - to satisfy. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "The Place Beyond the Pines" is an ambitious drama about the ways in which one bad decision can reverberate across generations. Read more

Globe and Mail: A sweeping, bold and admirably ambitious crime movie triptych, which almost compensates for its occasional overreaching with sheer bravado and fully committed performances. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Cianfrance and his sterling cast keep it all together, vanquishing doubt and soap suds. There's a palpable sense of teamwork that brings out the best in all of these players. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: Carefully observed and consistently compelling, it feels like an instant American classic, if a minor one. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: There's a distinct feeling that the movie is trapped in its own pop psychology. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Overlong and under-conceived. Read more

Scott Foundas, Village Voice: Sure to inspire indifference and cultish admiration in nearly equal measure, this extravagant mess may someday be re-evaluated as a misunderstood masterpiece. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: As the sum of some admittedly imperfect parts, "The Place Beyond the Pines" still manages to cast its own haunting, sorrowful spell. Read more