Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
"You've got five minutes," the driver says to a potential contractor while making his pitch to participate in a heist. "Anything that happens within that five minutes and I'm all yours... whatever you need. If something happens a minute either before or after, you're on your own." He lives his life with a similar kind of hard and fast simplicity.
"Drive" is a movie of few words, and even fewer thoughts. Its plot, like its main character, hasn't time for such luxuries. That approach works quite well here. A sordid past fuels the motivations of the driver, yet we're never privy to the details of his background. Screenwriter Hossein Amini and director Nicolas Winding Refn are wise enough to understand that the less we know about him, the more compelling his actions become. (We never learn his real name; he's credited simply as "The Driver.")
Ryan Gosling plays the main character as a man of both unwavering principles and ungodly rage, though the film waits patiently in allowing us to see the latter side to his personality. His job? He drives, is the way he phrases it to those who inquire. This takes on a number of forms. By day, he works as a Hollywood stunt driver while at night offers his services as a getaway man for heists. He also finds time to work at a repair shop run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a likable though somewhat shady guy who seems to know a little about the driver's past and is constantly on the lookout for ways to net a big score. (His limp tells us all we need to know about the unsavory personalities he has unwisely crossed paths with.) His latest proposal has him in cahoots with a rich crime boss named Bernie Rose (a convincingly fiendish Albert Brooks) who seems willing to do business with others for little more than to have a reason to torture them, and Nino (Ron Perlman), a pizzeria entrepreneur who fancies himself a modern-day mobster but is way too reckless to be effective at it.
The driver, meanwhile, mainly keeps to himself though does strike up a friendship with his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), a soft-spoken young mother to an engaging young boy named Benicio (Kaden Leos). Few words are spoken between the two neighbors (neither individual is overly loquacious) yet we sense the bond between them grow into something more than a friendship. That is, until Irene finally confesses to him that her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) is set to be released from prison in a matter of days. His reaction is no reaction; not only are his emotions not worn on the sleeve, they're embedded so deeply in his psyche that nothing less than a herculean effort could touch them. The driver maintains his friendship with Irene and pseudo-guardianship with Benicio. When Standard finds himself in debt for prison protection money and threats are levied against Irene and Benicio, the driver offers his services in a heist to repay the debt. (His emotions may be hidden, but his principles are front and center.) It's when the heist goes bad and the lives of those he cares for are suddenly in grave danger does his rage bubble to the surface.
The violence depicted in the film is as unbridled as I've seen in a long time, but what's remarkable is how patient the movie is before it gets to that point. Here we have a flashy action pic that doesn't skimp on the flash or the action, but nor does it allow that action to overshadow the characters and their relationships with each other. I also liked how the movie forgoes explanation for understanding; we don't learn a whole lot about these individuals, and yet we're offered a solid grasp of where they're coming from and where their principles lie. Too many movies have an irrepressible need to explain everything. That the main character remains a mystery throughout somehow makes the movie more compelling.
Director Nicolas Winding Refn incorporates a melange of cinematic techniques to underscore the tension, from photographing certain characters from waist-level up to shifting illumination (in a half-romantic/half-violent elevator scene) to using a slow dissolve in action sequences where most directors would utilize quick cuts. I especially admired how Refn employs the usage of slow motion, but uses it in the reaction shots of the actors instead of the action shots themselves.
The movie's best trait is that it exists on its own terms. Style over substance? Perhaps, though the style is superb. And the film does have substance. The difference being the filmmakers understand that a movie's capacity for being compelling isn't dependent on how much information is conveyed, but on exactly how much of it needs to be. Nothing more. The film cares as much about its characters as it does the violence that erupts around them. The end result is a surprisingly involving stylish thriller.
* * * 1/2 out of * * * * stars
"Drive" is a movie of few words, and even fewer thoughts. Its plot, like its main character, hasn't time for such luxuries. That approach works quite well here. A sordid past fuels the motivations of the driver, yet we're never privy to the details of his background. Screenwriter Hossein Amini and director Nicolas Winding Refn are wise enough to understand that the less we know about him, the more compelling his actions become. (We never learn his real name; he's credited simply as "The Driver.")
Ryan Gosling plays the main character as a man of both unwavering principles and ungodly rage, though the film waits patiently in allowing us to see the latter side to his personality. His job? He drives, is the way he phrases it to those who inquire. This takes on a number of forms. By day, he works as a Hollywood stunt driver while at night offers his services as a getaway man for heists. He also finds time to work at a repair shop run by Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a likable though somewhat shady guy who seems to know a little about the driver's past and is constantly on the lookout for ways to net a big score. (His limp tells us all we need to know about the unsavory personalities he has unwisely crossed paths with.) His latest proposal has him in cahoots with a rich crime boss named Bernie Rose (a convincingly fiendish Albert Brooks) who seems willing to do business with others for little more than to have a reason to torture them, and Nino (Ron Perlman), a pizzeria entrepreneur who fancies himself a modern-day mobster but is way too reckless to be effective at it.
The driver, meanwhile, mainly keeps to himself though does strike up a friendship with his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), a soft-spoken young mother to an engaging young boy named Benicio (Kaden Leos). Few words are spoken between the two neighbors (neither individual is overly loquacious) yet we sense the bond between them grow into something more than a friendship. That is, until Irene finally confesses to him that her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) is set to be released from prison in a matter of days. His reaction is no reaction; not only are his emotions not worn on the sleeve, they're embedded so deeply in his psyche that nothing less than a herculean effort could touch them. The driver maintains his friendship with Irene and pseudo-guardianship with Benicio. When Standard finds himself in debt for prison protection money and threats are levied against Irene and Benicio, the driver offers his services in a heist to repay the debt. (His emotions may be hidden, but his principles are front and center.) It's when the heist goes bad and the lives of those he cares for are suddenly in grave danger does his rage bubble to the surface.
The violence depicted in the film is as unbridled as I've seen in a long time, but what's remarkable is how patient the movie is before it gets to that point. Here we have a flashy action pic that doesn't skimp on the flash or the action, but nor does it allow that action to overshadow the characters and their relationships with each other. I also liked how the movie forgoes explanation for understanding; we don't learn a whole lot about these individuals, and yet we're offered a solid grasp of where they're coming from and where their principles lie. Too many movies have an irrepressible need to explain everything. That the main character remains a mystery throughout somehow makes the movie more compelling.
Director Nicolas Winding Refn incorporates a melange of cinematic techniques to underscore the tension, from photographing certain characters from waist-level up to shifting illumination (in a half-romantic/half-violent elevator scene) to using a slow dissolve in action sequences where most directors would utilize quick cuts. I especially admired how Refn employs the usage of slow motion, but uses it in the reaction shots of the actors instead of the action shots themselves.
The movie's best trait is that it exists on its own terms. Style over substance? Perhaps, though the style is superb. And the film does have substance. The difference being the filmmakers understand that a movie's capacity for being compelling isn't dependent on how much information is conveyed, but on exactly how much of it needs to be. Nothing more. The film cares as much about its characters as it does the violence that erupts around them. The end result is a surprisingly involving stylish thriller.
* * * 1/2 out of * * * * stars
