The Place Beyond the Pines
Focus Features | Release Date: March 29, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
13
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMar 28, 2013
The poetry in The Place Beyond the Pines can be elusive, but also easy to get lost in. Read full review
60
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 27, 2013
I never stopped being interested in The Place Beyond the Pines, and never stopped rooting for Cianfrance to make the hubristic ambition of his immense tripartite scheme pay off, even as it evidently falls apart. Read full review
60
Village VoiceScott FoundasMar 26, 2013
The Place Beyond the Pines is a much bigger canvas, and scene by scene it can be riveting...But the disparate pieces never quite jell; the movie is all trees and no forest. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMar 26, 2013
Yet after the actorcentric fireworks of Cianfrance’s "Blue Valentine" (2010), it’s impressive to see him going after a wider sociopolitical scope, one that would have been better served by a less repetitive structure. Read full review
60
The GuardianHenry BarnesMar 3, 2013
The Place Beyond the Pines is ambitious and epic, perhaps to a fault. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 12, 2013
While the scope of the movie is bigger, its impact is smaller. "Blue Valentine" was a precise, heartrending portrait of a marriage coming apart at the seams. The theme of his new movie is a lot harder to discern. Read full review
50
NPRMark JenkinsMar 28, 2013
Too much of this seething drama is devoted not to characterization but to posturing. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMar 27, 2013
It's a slow-burner that burns so slowly its wick completely fizzles out. Read full review
50
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMar 26, 2013
Unwieldy, overlong and overly reliant on melodramatic coincidences, A Place in the Pines is still better than it has any right to be, thanks to its cast. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid DenbyMar 25, 2013
Cool, violent, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Gosling reprises his inexorable-loner routine from “Drive.” Cianfrance and the screenwriters Ben Coccio and Darius Marder wrote thirty-seven drafts of the script, but gave him almost nothing to say. He rides, he smokes, he knocks over banks, he loves his baby, and that’s it. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 25, 2013
The segments are essentially monodramas, so sketchily written that the big moments feel less like recognizable human behavior than recognizable screenwriter overreaching. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeMar 22, 2013
Two half-stories about fathers and sons on opposite sides of the law do not a full movie make in The Place Beyond the Pines, the overlong and under-conceived reunion between “Blue Valentine” director Derek Cianfrance and lookalike star Ryan Gosling. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineMar 15, 2013
The film never reaches a climax because it's always in one, distilling the lives of its characters to their tensest moments. Read full review
More From This Movie

68 Critic Reviews

8.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL