dvd of the week
Despite writer-director Derek Cianfrance’s Herculean efforts at creating country noir and Ryan Gosling’s smolder, the film doesn’t quite work. The main reason is the film’s conceit, that the plot, focusing on three men in upstate New York over a generation, would be completely linear. In the first act, a daredevil motorcyclist named Luke (Gosling) turns to crime in order to support his ex-girlfriend (Eva Mendes) and their baby. The second focuses on the cop, Avery (Bradley Cooper), who catches Luke and struggles to make his way in a corrupt police force. The third focuses on a troubled teen, played by Dane DeHaan. This wildly ambitious and flawed film is worth seeing for the first act. With the focus on Gosling, his intense feelings of duty and frustration, the opening 40 minutes or so are entrancing. It’s a performance reminiscent of his work in Drive, but much more raw; Luke has much less confidence and much less control over his emotions than the Driver did. After he’s gone, the film is somewhat of a letdown, but that first third is so good, you might not care.
