The Place Beyond The Pines (2013) is a wonderfully complex film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. It's told in triptych, meaning The Place Beyond The Pines is essentially three different films. The film tells the story of the bond between two families (both of different social classes), whose paths cross over the course of two generations in Schenectady, a town in New York [3]. In The Place Beyond the Pines, the criminal, his deviant path and his eventual involvement with the police simply serve as catalysts from which the true focus of the film emerges [2]. It brings attention to the relationships between fathers and sons and explores the roles that fate, circumstance and chance can play in a person's life. Cianfrance used postmodernism, neorealism, descriptive and prescriptive models, and Freudian theories when he wrote The Place Beyond The Pines and this is evident throughout the film. The first act of The Place Beyond The Pines revolves around the story of Luke Glanton, played by Ryan Duck. Luke is a motorcycle stuntman for a traveling circus, but gives it all up when he discovers he has a son named Jason. Jason is the son of Luke and Romina (Eva Mendes). Luke wants to be part of his son's life, but Romina has already found a new man. Since Luke quit his job, he has no financial stability to provide for his son, so he meets a man named Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) and they start robbing banks. Luke's robbery days don't last long and he is soon chased down and eventually killed by a rookie police officer named Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). The two cross paths for a few seconds and their worlds collide. This is the conclusion of the first act and leads into the second act, which focuses on Avery Cross, but it's surprising when... half the paper... counts. Np, 6 August 2013. Web. 19 March 2014.[3] http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/14/place-beyond-the-pines-reviewFrench, Philip. "The place Beyond the Pines." The Observer. Guardian News and Media, 14 April 2013. Web. 19 March 2014.[4] http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-place-beyond-the-pines-2013-1Roeper, Richard. "The place Beyond the Pines." All contents. Np, 3 April 2013. Web. 19 March 2014.[5] http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/04/18/pine-a18.htmlWalsh, David. "The Place Beyond the Pines: Fathers and Sons." WSWS. ICFI, 18 April 2013. Web. 19 March 2014.[6] Rosalind Coward, Sacred Cows (London 1999) p. 130[7] Patrick Casement, Further learning from the patient (London 1997) p. 68 and p. 116[8] Salman Akhtar, Complete Dictionary of Psychoanalysis (2009) p. 106[9] Erich Neumann, Origins and history of consciousness (1995) p. 190