The Place beyond the Pines

Though Ryan Gosling exploits his pin-up status here as a character named Handsome Luke, this unconventional and often surprising crime melodrama is more concerned with the relationships between men, particularly fathers and sons. Gosling opens the story as a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to crime in order to raise the son he never knew he had, but then writer/director Derek Cianfrance (who previously directed Gosling in Blue Valentine) changes lanes in an unexpected way. He brings in policeman Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), who is experiencing father issues of his own, and the last third of the film sees their boys (Emory Cohen and a superb Dane DeHaan) crossing paths in yet another turn of fate. Although most of the film's power is derived from its many twists, and Cianfrance relies a little too much on coincidence, this remains a smart, sprawling and beautifully crafted morality tale that echoes European films such as Biutiful and Rust & Bone in the way it explores the more sensitive side of the male psyche.