The Place Beyond the Pines

Over the weekend, I took my Little to see The Place Beyond the Pines. It was her idea (with parents' permission, of course). The movie is set in Schenectady (where I live) and was filmed in the area in 2011. We thought it would be fun to see all the familiar sights and places.

I've talked about the movie a lot elsewhere, from a local interest point of view. I thought I'd share my feelings about the movie over here.

• At 2 hours 20 minutes, the movie was way - waaaayyy - too long. It's a long story and it does

  

  From IMDb
  That intersection is not far from my first apartment!

  need extra time to be told correctly - but I think it could easily have been told in under 2 hours.
• If you saw the movie at Bow-Tie Cinema at the 11:30 am show on Saturday, April 20, and you were sitting in the center of the aisle about 10 rows back with your wife/girlfriend, and talked all the way through the movie - you, sir, are a jackass.
• There was a woman sitting in front of us breast-feeding her baby. I could not care less that she was breast-feeding. I was a little annoyed when the baby started crying. An infant in a carrier isn't something you think you'll have to deal with at a movie rated R.
• Speaking of...I don't think I ever want to take a teenager to a rated R movie again. There wasn't anything explicit in the movie (other than language, which I'm sure she's heard). But the theme and subject matter was over her teenage head. Frankly - it was almost over my 30-something head. I did my best to explain what I could on the drive home.
• I was not crazy about the way Schenectady was portrayed. We are not all hicks, red-necks, or criminals. We don't all live in run-down homes, or drive beat-up cars. 
• I was even less impressed with how Troy was represented (through its sole character in the film). Honestly - if I lived there, I'd be pretty mad.
• Mahershala Ali is adorable. I would have put him on the movie poster.

****Small Spoiler Alert**** 

• It was ironic to see fictional newscasts talking about corruption and ethics investigations within the Schenectady Police Department. Considering how many real stories there are about that very thing, I chuckled thinking how they had to create one for the movie.
• If the acting thing doesn't work out, Ray Liotta would probably be perfect as a detective on the SPD.
• Without giving too much away, the story is a great telling of how good and bad are rarely as simple as black and white. Things are almost never what they seem, and you should never judge a book by its cover.