I went with this for the first two thirds. It's clearly directed by a man with talent and was full of interesting fresh touches - Ryan Gosling's introduction riding motorbikes (an old fashioned star entrance done very well), the atmosphere of the small town (diners, sideshows, churches), hooking up with Ben Mendelsohn (another excellent performance), several bank robberies. The details weren't super original but the handling made it worth it, including the acting.
The second third was less good - I wasn't wild about the introduction of corrupt cops (would they really invite Bradley Cooper along on a shake down?) but it had strong atmosphere. The last third started off well with some interesting casting, but then the tide ran out and it got sillier and sillier with unconvincing gun pointing scenes and drives out to graves, and it felt as though it dragged on and on (the lack of star power around this bit didn't hurt either).
The script is not a traditional film structure (three sections, three different protagonists) but won't surprise too many who read novels. They probably should have made it just out of the first third - I know that would have defeated what they wanted to do, but it would have made for a more entertaining movie.
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