Date Night

A Place Beyond the Pines

Kathie has already alerted our Facebook friends that we had a date night yesterday.  We caught the four o'clock showing of Derek Cianfrance's new film and then we sat at the bar at Mizuna and had dinner and chatted about the movie.  How sophisticated can you get?  The older I get the less I feel a need to exert any effort about anything, so instead of presenting an organized reaction to our date, here is a random list of observations, mostly about Derek's terrific movie.

1.  I strongly disagree with the movie critics who complained that the three different stories of the film were disconnected, the last two sections weak and undeveloped.  First of all, if I hadn't read the critics it wouldn't have occurred to me that there were three stories.  I thought the narrative string ran unbroken through the whole thing.  I suppose the last two sections were weak only because Ryan Gosling is crazy good in the first sequence.  He haunts the rest of the movie, as well he should.  I strongly suspect that was Derek's intention.  Because of that, I never lost focus.  The transition from the Gosling character's death to the initial remorse of his killer was masterful, I thought.  And the last sequence with the kids was compelling, mostly because the actor playing the cop turned politician's son was brilliant.  The scene where his dad is holding his face in his hand and confronting him might be the most perfect father-son encounter I've ever seen.  I didn't like it much, except as art.

2.  Here is what I like best about Derek's movies:  the performances are always so natural.  Has any woman ever been better than Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine?  Ryan Gosling, who should have had a nomination for Valentine, was even better here.  Ray Liotta.  Nobody does menace better than him.  The critics said that Eva Mendez' character wasn't developed.  I thought it was developed perfectly in countless understated ways.  It wasn't her story, but her heartbreak was always at the forefront.

3.  I loved the way the cinematography didn't call attention to itself, but was masterful at the same time. For instance, during the (AMAZING) chase scene through the cemetery, I was rapt because of him dodging in and out of cool old tombstones; I wasn't constantly thinking, "Wow, what a great shot!"  I think that's called art.

4.  Mostly, and here's my main reaction, even though it is clear that Derek's film is working on the theme of father and son relationships, the most compelling thing about it, and Derek's other films, for Kathie and me is the way they get to the heart of dualities.  I loved the tension between Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in BLUE VALENTINE.  They embody duty and desire, both individually and together.  And the Gosling character in THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES  is eminently likable, until the danger always lurking below the surface breaks out.  I'll say it again.  Gosling is amazing.

5.  I love the way the movie made me think, even though I'm not sure I like what I'm thinking about.  As I've gotten older I've grown less profound.  I think that's fascinating.  In a box in the basement lies a collection of the failed novel attempts of my youth.  They were all serious and loaded with symbolism.  In my mid sixties I have managed to write two novels (both unpublished, but I'm proud of them), neither of which is profound or particularly symbolic.  They're light and, if I say so myself, fun to read. But I certainly wouldn't teach either one of them in an AP class.  It is sobering to realize one lacks profundity, but that's where I am.  Derek obviously has issues that he is passionate about.  I don't.  I'm not sure I ever did.  I know men with father issues who tear up when they watch FIELD OF DREAMS.  My mother and father were divorced when I was 6, but Kevin Costner playing catch with his dead father never did it for me.  See what I mean?  It is hard to be an artist when you are shallow.

6.  The bar at Mizuna is the perfect place to discuss a film.  A really nice sauvignon blanc.  A tuna tartare on paper thin slices of cucumber studded with caviar.  A snapper dish consisting of one perfect bite after another.  All of that followed by a snifter of Armagnac.  And, of course, my best friend sitting next to me being characteristically brilliant.  Thank you Derek for providing the grist for our date night.