Drive- Movie Review

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Screenplay by Hossein Amini, based on the novel by James Sallis.
Running Time: 100 minutes (1h, 40 mins.)
Rated R (for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity).
Distributor: FilmDistrict

"If I drive for you, you give the time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what." That is the line Ryan Gosling's unnamed character (we simply know him as Driver) opens Drive with. These are his rules when he moonlights as a getaway driver for criminals, which you must be able to follow. During these five minutes, he has a timer which he sets for five minutes and while listening to a sports game on the radio, he has police reports on another. When he drives, the skills he has are incredible. When driving two criminals, he's able to evade the police in a quick moment, hiding his car behind the back of a truck and eventually at the Staples Center parking lot, which is crowded with people. That scene just grabbed me and that was only the beginning...

Other than moonlighting as a getaway driver, Driver is also a mechanic at his friend Shannon's (Bryan Cranston) garage and an occasional Hollywood stunt driver. He becomes involved with his neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), a single mother with a young son. The two develop a romantic connection, even when her husband, Standard (Oscar Issac) returns home from prison. Standard needs to pay off his protection money to a mobster, so he asks Driver to help him rob a pawn shop. The heist, however, goes horribly wrong when Standard gets shot and Driver must do everything he can to protect Irene and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), when he realizes the gangsters are after more than just the money.

For those who haven't seen the movie yet, please don't think that mentioning the opening scene was a spoiler, because it wasn't. That scene just shows you what he does. Even some of it is shown in the trailer. What isn't shown in the trailer (red-band and green-band) is the amount of brutality and blood this film has. Driver crushes a guy's skull...with his boots! Although I wasn't one of those few people who left the Ryerson Theater, which is where it premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (I wasn't there for the premiere), I can somewhat understand why it happened. While audiences at Cannes could have probably handled it, Toronto audiences are, I think, more calm in sorts. Luckily that kind of reaction didn't translate into my screening, but the audience was still stunned and shocked at the other scenes, especially that elevator scene. But let me move my focus away from the violence and to the movie in a whole.

Gosling really nails his performance as the unnamed driver, who's kind of a silent person. Everyone has been comparing his performance to a young Steve McQueen. I've seen Bullitt, so I guess I could see the resemblance. Carey Mulligan is pretty good as the girl he ends falling in love with and I also liked Bryan Cranston too. Oscar Issac is good as well, but I liked him better in Sucker Punch. Ron Perlman is okay. Christina Hendricks has a small-but-vital role as Blanche and as small as it was, it was pretty memorable. The surprising member of the cast is Albert Brooks, who plays the foul-mouthed Bernie Rose, a former film producer-turned-mobster. He starts off as a calm character, but as the movie progresses on, he becomes much darker and even a bit scary. Brooks will floor you.

Nicolas Winding Refn is the director of the film. Audiences might know him best for directing Bronson, the film that skyrocketed Tom Hardy's career. In terms of production countries, this is his first American motion picture and he doesn't disappoint. With the film made on a budget of $13-15 million, I could tell from the film's first scene that he didn't want to make this Fast and the Furious-type of flick. Refn provides a visual style to the film with wide-angle shots amazingly rendered by cinematography Newton Thomas Sigel. From the helicopter-like shots of Los Angeles to the scenes where Gosling is in the car, the whole movie looks beautiful.

I find it hard to believe that this is based on a book, mainly because I've never read it. I don't think I even heard of the book until the movie came out. The script by Oscar-winning screenwriter Hossein Amini brings some depth to these characters. We don't know too much about them and I think it was meant that way. I love the score provided by Clint Martinez. It brings a lot of that '80's vibe to the film as it's mostly based on electronica and europop. Along with that, I loved how they used Kavinsky's song, "Nightcall" during the film's opening credits. Also, I'm starting to love College's "A Real Hero" featuring Electric Youth. Basically, before I mention more songs, what I'm trying to say is buy the soundtrack either on iTunes or physically in a record store.

In closing, Drive is one of the boldest films that I've seen brought into a mainstream release. Most of the performances are impressive and some of the scenes are pretty unpredictable. It's romantic, thrilling, bloody and brutally violent. Like I said before, don't expect The Fast and the Furious, otherwise you'll be pretty upset. I give the film ***1/2 (3 stars and a half).