The Place Beyond the Pines

* * * ½

(Exciting episodic tale)

You get three stories for the price of one in this exciting episodic tale.

Ryan Gosling plays a motorcyclist who performs a number of clever bank robberies before he is caught by Avery (Bradley Cooper), a cop who is deemed a hero but lives with an incident weighing heavily on his conscience.

The story shifts to Avery and his rise to becoming a candidate for New York district attorney, then shifts again to his son, who is dealing with a serious drug problem. All three stories come together in a dramatic conclusion.

Great performances by Gosling, Cooper, Eva Mendes as the mother of Gosling’s child and Ray Liotta as a crooked cop.

It is a long, episodic story (two hours and 20 minutes) but never slows down and holds your interest, raising many moral issues. Rated R, with violence, profanity and drug usage.