The Place Beyond the Pines

Spoiler alert: I'm going to tell you what happens in a movie.  It's already out on cable, so it's not that new, but still if you don't want to know what happens at the end of  The Place Beyond the Pines, don't read this.

It's basically a story about consequences.
A travelling carnival performer finds out he has a son with a woman he had had a fling with the summer before.  He decides to quit his traveling and settle down to take care of his son.  It's honorable, right?  It's what we think a good man should do, right?  Except for the fact that life is complicated, and that there aren't a lot of really good career prospects for a tattoo covered, somewhat unstable young man whose main talent is riding a dirt bike around a large metal sphere.  Especially in Schenectady New York.
That is, except rob banks, which goes pretty well until he starts breaking the principles of bank robbery, which had allowed him to escape capture a half dozen times.
Enter a young, ambitious policeman, who has chosen life on the force instead of using his law degree, who is the person on the scene when the whole bank robbery thing goes awry (as it usually does).  The policeman shoots first, but becomes a hero, while the bank robber just gets dead.
They both have one year old sons.
They both essentially leave their sons fatherless that day.
Fifteen years later the cop is divorced, and pursuing the office of State's Attorney General.  His son is a mess, a deliberate, psychopathic mess.  The bank robber's son is a mess too, but not quite as much of a mess as the cop/attorney's son.  The bank robber's son has lived without knowing his "real" dad, but apparently has had a pretty darn good stand in.  The DA's son has lived without much of anything from his "real" dad, and without anyone to stand in.
No one except the DA makes the connection between the two boys until, in a flood of epiphanies, the bank robber's son figures it out, pretty much snaps and goes all vengeful on the DA.  You think this movie is heading for a very dark place, a tragic and bloody ending, where the sins of father's both living and dead are being passed right on down the family tree.
And then the man who has killed, betrayed, abandoned and crushed just about anyone and everyone who got in his way on his rise to power, says he's sorry to the son of the man who he killed, "in the line of duty."
Guilt is a powerful thing.
He's been carrying a picture he found of the bank robber with his infant son.  He's been carrying the picture in his wallet for fifteen years.  The implication is that he carries it to remind himself of the cost of his success...
A cost that has been too high.
And he is sorry.
He's not just sorry for killing a man.  He's not just sorry for leaving a child fatherless.  He's sorry because the chain of decisions that he made from that moment on have ruined more lives than he cares to count, and all those lives are embodied in the boy who is now pointing a gun at his head.
But the boy does better than his ne'er do well father, and better than the privileged rich kid who was playing cops and robbers, and better than the powerful State's attorney that is at his mercy.
He walks away.
He walks away from everything.
And you get a very unexpected "happy" ending.  The cop wins the election, the cop's son sees the error of his ways, the bank robber's son rides off to the west on a motorcycle to write his own story, which you hope will be significantly better than the story he was given.
Because of the tone of the movie up to that point, I was expecting a tragedy.  Everything just seemed to be going all wrong for everyone involved, and quite frankly most of them seemed like they deserved it.  There were no heroes, until a very proud and ruthless man said he was sorry.
Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near.
Repent, even if the world thinks you're in the right.
Repent, even if your sin has helped you "win."
Repent, even if it seems like it's too late.
It's never too late to be forgiven.