Place Beyond the Pines starring: Ryan GoslingBradley CooperEva MendesRay LiottaBen Mendelsohn
WARNING - This review contains spoilers
I'm starting to think I've become jaded. I greatly anticipated seeing this movie. I loved the cast and the premise. A bad decision by one father to become a bank robber, and a bad reaction from another father - a cop who shoots him dead, leads to a lifetime of consequences for both men's sons.
I still like the premise, and the first half of the movie was very gripping. It was the second half that lost me, when the two boys (inevitably) meet up and become quasi-friends. That whole relationship seemed fake and forced and to me, completely unbelievable, as did the parents reactions. 
To me, it felt like it was trying too hard to be an arty film while maintaining a thriller feeling. Don't get me wrong - there are many arty films I love. But its a fine line combining genres, and they could have kept this together and made a truly great film if they'd tried to make the relationship between the kids a little more realistic. By the end of the movie I felt no connection to any of the characters. I left the theater feeling rather deflated.
My rating: 3 Stars