Luke (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is in constant motion, a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer who travels from town to town with the carnival. Passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has in his absence given birth to their son Jason. Luke resolves to forsake life on the road and to provide for his newfound family, taking a job as car mechanic with Robin (Ben Mendelsohn).
Robin soon discovers Luke’s special talents, and proposes to partner with him in a string of spectacular bank robberies.
But it is only a matter of time before Luke will run up against the law – which comes in the form of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper). Avery is an ambitious rookie cop navigating a local police department ruled by the menacingly corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). When Avery, just beginning to balance his profession and his family life with wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ, confronts Luke, the full consequences will reverberate into the next generation. It is then that the two sons, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), must face their fateful, shared legacy.
This was a very well done movie. Great acting. Great storytelling. Very well developed characters and drama. Now that I've given all the positives, there were two things that hurt this movie for me. One was that it was waaaaaay too long. I realize that the multilayered story needed to play out but I was shocked when it was almost 10pm when the 7:15pm showing I went to ended. The other thing was that you had Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper putting great performances in yet without giving away too much they were only on screen together for like 30 seconds. I wish there could have been more on screen time for these two great characters.
I would definitely recommend people checking this out. It's excellent storytelling on many levels/layers. Just be warned that it is a pretty long movie.
