From Netflix:

Luke is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer, their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud.

By this time (2012) in their lives 32 year old Ryan Gosling and 37 year old Bradley Cooper may well be in their young adult film prime. Each already has a long list of credits. Of the two, Gosling can better play more eccentric roles as he does here in this film, although he belongs to that school of acting which promotes the idea “The less you say the better, let the audience think the thoughts that you should be having in this particular scene”. Call it the silent meditation school of acting. Cooper is a more direct actor. In a certain sense the acting style is often a natural and very real “talking heads”, but the story line is so good that it all works together.

Good writing and plotting has produced a story with two parts: Part One portrays the events that affect the lives of the characters in Part Two, fifteen years later. Without giving much away (plot is paramount in this film), Gosling and Cooper are crook and cop, each with a son Jason and AJ respectively. Interaction between the fathers early in their lives has strong repercussions later in the lives of the sons. Dane DeHaan (as Jason) and Emory Cohen (as AJ) did fine jobs as lost teenagers.

All that I feel that I must tell you is: Do not expect a happy ending. Century 21 is the century of unresolved conflicts.