Luke (The place beyond the pines)

His silences say more than his words. A haunting soundtrack and pained eyes convey more than a chapter in a novel. Luke's character moves through your soul as powerfully as a glaciar running down the slopes; it is by no means fast, but as you feel the story progressing, you are invested in him fully.

Luke is a person who we meet in the middle of nowhere of his life. He is in his thirties, and by this point in his life, fate seems to have led him to a dead-end. He has a unique and interesting skill: he can ride motorcycles with great speed and precision. He seems unable at this point to be able to monetize this skill in any meaningful way. The low level of prestige that this job holds in society allows him to have garish tatoos on his face, and his bleached hair is a visual representation of somebody who is living a life that is 10 years too young for him anymore. His resting expression and mannerisms seem to confirm that Luke knows it too.

As you can see from my other analysis', I am a sucker for characters who inhabit the underbelly of the world. The people who live in this hopeless realm, this dark thicket of forest, this bottom of the sea abode, where they are so far under the sea, that neither light nor accepted morality seems to reach them. It is here, in the extremes of society, that truly human stories can be told realistically and powerfully.

After a brief romance with Eva Mendes, Fate forces adulthodd upon Lukes character. Fatherhood. He can no longer only consider himself. He is now faced with being responsible for somebody else. Now, this is by no means something that he has to do. He can follow his carnival tour around the country, and forget about Eva and the baby like he forgets the town he visits. Luke seems to relish the oppurtunity, however. It seems that though his past psychological scars have prevented him from actively pursuing real purpose or an anchor in life, when it is thrust upon him, he knows immediately that it is something he really wants.

Now then, unlike other more productive members of society, who at Luke's age have some sort of reasonable stable income and homes, Luke has none of them. He has little disposable income, and no C.V to help him provide for his new family in any way close to how he wants to provide for them. The double edged sword. It is a deep hole Luke has dug for himself in life, and a pregnant girlfriend brings Luke crashing into reality.

Luke is by all accounts a rational actor. At the point of the film that we follow his life, he is not addicted to any substances, speaks cogently, and appears to have street smarts. So, as a rational person faced with a dilemma of having to give up his old 'career' to stay put near his new family, he takes a job at any place that will hire him. He soon comes to realise that the job pays too little for what he needs. With a baby fast approaching, Luke has neither the time, and possibly inclination to improve his C.V so that he may build towards a career. Instead, this high octane mind looks for and finds a high octane solution: Theft.