Drive - Film Review

Highly anticipated, with a low throbbing buzz of hype around it, Nicolas Winding Refn's dark thriller delves into some rather unexpected territory during a format which is far more predictable, creating a film hybrid of hypnotic calibre.

The film follows the nameless, backstory-less driver (Ryan Gosling), a mechanic and film stuntman who operates as a getaway specialist for extra cash, but otherwise leads a lonely, singular existence, not alive until he is behind the wheel. After meeting single mother neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), he begins to feel something more, but then his new found happiness is shattered by the violent arrival in his life of mobsters clamouring for money in a scheme he never understands, but is forced into bringing the sharp end to.

Gosling's driver is a mysterious man, rarely speaking and with low volumes, who comes into his element when escorting bank robbers out of danger, or in restoring old cars for his boss and closest friend Shannon (Bryan Cranston, building a new career after his success in Breaking Bad), one of the few people who seems to understand him. When he meets Irene, an unsatisfied but defiantly upbeat worker and mother, there is suddenly a spark in him, and he seems more human as he grows to know her and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). Despite this, he has a darkness about him, a scary side that is kindled when Irene's husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison, and subsequently falls foul of old prison mates, putting his family in mortal danger. Naturally, the driver steps in, becoming intangled in a web of deceit in his efforts to protect the new livelihood he has discovered, and unleashing his dangerous potential.

Drive is a very curious film, and the crux of this falls on Refn, who's fingerprints are all over it in a way that is less ego directing and more visual stamp. It's clear from reading the plot summary how the film is originally scripted as a run of the mill action thriller, albeit with some mystery elements to it bordering on modern noir. But the conspiring dark force is pushed firmly into the background by Refn, with the elaborate scheme made almost unintelligble to the point that it is clearly not meant to be the focus, and even deliberately inaccessible. The gangsters, represented by Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman, are showcased as pretty flawed people with labyrinth schemes and deadly methods, hardly evil geniuses. Instead, Refn focusses on the characters and the quiet moments, using the violent confrontations within the second half as a show of contrast towards the quiet, dreamlike phase of the first.

In doing this, he takes a creative choice similar to Peter Weir's Witness, in that the relationship between the driver and Irene, the story's fulcrum, is completely deconstructed. Instead of getting sappy dialogue and long winded verbal expression of feelings, there is barely any dialogue between the two, instead reliance is put on Gosling and Mulligan to show their emotions towards each other visually. The result is some quiet beautiful moments, comprising longing looks and staring into one another's eyes, testing each other's intentions and desires.

This is of huge benefit to Gosling especially, who provides a superb performance as the nameless driver. There are incredible depths to the character, who on the surface appears to hold no personality traits aside from his love of cars, and no past aside from hints made by Shannon. But although this does make the audience demand more information, it also provides it in a very subtle sense, with his occasionally child-like demeanour, an odd vulnerability, and propensity for retributive action suggest a powerful trauma from his past, a dark side to his history. Carey Mulligan, already a highly sought after actress after her breakthrough in An Education, acts almost as a totem to the driver's story, but still brings an energy, weary yet hopeful, which is alluring. The other actors, in compact parts, hit the right buttons.

As mentioned, there is a distinct turn for deep foreboding halfway through, when things begin to go downhill, following a botched pawn shop robbery that is shrouded in ambiguity. The music begins to pierce rather than soothe, changing the tone from serene surreality to fierce savagery, while Gosling's increasing choked down rage manifests itself physically, not verbally. When things kick off, the violence is both stylised and extreme, sharply at odds with what came before. That much of it is meated out by the driver indicates just how things have changed, and the unleashing of this animal rage is doubly shocking and depressing. You can tell this is a man who has been supressing such animal instincts for some time, and it is tragic that the neccessity to employ them again will mean he cannot have the happiness he seeks. The bitter irony in that by protecting what he holds dearest, he cannot obtain it, as it gets further and further from his reach with each sacrificial step.

After his efforts in the searing Bronson earned him such acclaim, Refn clearly revels in bringing his own slant to somebody else's script (one adapted from James Sallis's book of the same name), approaching the story with a different angle which makes a tired old story highly refreshing and, dare I say it, original. You're unlikely to have seen something like Drive before, and probably won't again until the Dane's next film. Every angle is thoughtfully chosen, while his control over light and sound is meticulous and affecting, bringing a distinctive atmosphere to the piece. Nothing in Drive is shot by normal standard, it always looks different in some way, while the more action based scenes are enthralling without using cliched methods. There's an undercurrent of dirty, grimy realism here, tempered by eloquent, surreal presentation. It's clear that this is a typical thriller directed by an art house filmmaker.

While Gosling simmers and impresses, and everyone is in uniformly good form, the real star of Drive is it's director, full of confidence and surging passion for his first Hollywood project, and creating a distinctive and memorable film which really shouldn't be as downright effective as it is. If you want to see something different, this is your ticket, never too far from conventional but always, beat for beat, it's own animal.

9/10