Character in "The Place Beyond the Pines"

Image.  A family group in the sanctuary of a Catholic church, standing in front of the altar. They are Romina, her baby Jason, and the baby’s stepfather Kofi, with a priest, who is baptizing the baby. Romina’s mother is nearby. The wall behind the altar is elaborate with sacred iconography, in the manner of large old Catholic churches. During the ceremony there are cuts back and forth to a man in a pew at the rear of the church. He is Luke Glanton, the biological father of the baby. He is crying.

Plot.  In the first part of “The Place Beyond the Pines,” Luke, a motorcycle rider in a carnival act, discovers he has a son, Jason, who was conceived when Luke was in town a year ago. Now Luke wants to have a life with Romina and Jason, but she has moved on. Out in the woods, he races his motorcycle among the trees to relieve his frustrations. There he meets a man who introduces him to bank robbery. He gets killed by a rookie cop, but not before he phones Ro and says not to tell the boy about himself.

In the second part, the cop struggles with guilt. He has a son the same age as Jason, whose name is A.J. An older, angry cop, whom he has accused of corruption, lures him to the woods at night. He flees. He tries to be an honest cop, but his career ambitions complicate things.

In the third part, Jason and A.J., now teenagers, meet at school. Jason discovers who A.J. is and starts a fight. He ends up in the hospital, where he calls Romina a liar because she refuses to tell him about his real father. He gets a gun and forces the cop, who is now off the force and has been elected district attorney, to drive him out to the woods. Jason threatens to shoot the cop. The cop, thinking he is about to die, says, “I’m sorry, Jason.” Jason changes his mind. He goes away, buys a motorcycle and heads west.

The question I wanted to ask today was, What does this movie say about character? But there was just too much else going on.

Title.  There’s the title, which refers to the lonely spot in the woods where (1) Luke turns to crime; (2) the cop turns around and flees; and (3) Jason turns around after the cop/district attorney says he’s sorry.

Theme.  There’s the persistent theme of how hard it is to be a father to a son. Luke didn’t have a father and now is shut out of fathering Jason. The cop had an attentive father but was never on the same page with him. The cop and his wife divorce. When A. J. wants to come live with him he’s busy running for D.A. Kofi has been with Romina since before Jason was born and tells Jason, “I am your father.” But Jason goes away.

Character.  The movie is a cry of despair. It’s as though a single composite character screams out of the middle of it, “I don’t know what to do!” As though each of the men and the boy come face to face with themselves in the woods—three times, that moment of recognition; that anagnorisis—but the truth they recognize is one of emptiness, lostness and rootlessness.

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