Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn has just laid down the gauntlet on this one. Already with an impressive list of films to his credit, Drive is his best film to date. Don't be surprised if he gets an Oscar nom for this, along with screenwriter Hossein Amini and star Ryan Gosling.
Drive starts like it's going to be a Transporter clone. Gosling is a non-nonsense driver for a nighttime heist. He accelerates through traffic, dodges police cars. But then something remarkable happens- the film reveals its intelligence. Rather than lighting off pyrotechnics and hopping houses, the heist car turns out its lights, pulls to the side of the road and waits. It's unexpected. The driver is a cool character, he waits, times it, accelerates from nowhere and plays cat and mouse with a helicopter along with several cops and blockades. He is in complete control and uberprecise. It's a breathtaking opening to the film, everytime he waits the tension builds.
Gosling's Driver is one of the more complex characters in recent memory. He befriends his neighbor Irene(Carey Mulligan), who has a husband in jail. He works in a garage with Shannon(Bryan Cranston), who also farms him out to drive stunts for the movies. Shannon has a plan has designs to further use him as a race car driver- financed by a sleazy ex-film producer(Albert Brooks). Driver says little, but seems kind and protective.
But just as Driver's relationship with Irene appears ready to bloom, her husband returns from jail. He is subsequently beaten by thugs demanding money from him for protection in prison. And Driver, instead of using all that to cement his position with Irene, offers his help to the husband, aiding him in a pawn store robbery to get the money to pay the thugs. But all is not what is seems. Everything goes to hell.
The pacing of Drive is a wonder to behold, a tight little film, full of unexpected turns and slowly ratcheting tension. We never find out much of anything about Driver's back story, a bold and refreshing choice, where did he come from, where did he learn about cars and driving, nothing. It's all what's happening now that matters.
When the inevitable violence explodes it's downright disturbing. Will Driver to find a way through it all to the other side and to Irene?
This is a near perfect film. I'm not all that happy with the ending but I have no other quibbles. Gosling performance is the stuff of legend, as controlled as his driving. The cinematography is perfect LA noir, the direction and writing are on point with all the twists and turns of LA surface street driving. The stunts are thrilling and believable for a change. It's a stunningly taut film.
After a summer of crap, Drive is one of the best films of the year.
Rating:
Plot : 29
Character : 31
Presentation: 30
Total : 90
