Drive (2011)

Welcome to the most unexpected film I've experienced in a long time. I thought it was normal Hollywood crime thriller but found, ten minutes into the movie, that this was going to be something more intriguing and complex. Drive is sometimes marketed as a standard Hollywood thriller but it is really an art-house film that makes no attempt to hide this fact. The plot starts out simple enough: A Hollywood stunt-driver doubles as a getaway driver for heists. As a driver he is ingenious and his tense cat-and-mouse chase with the police at the movie's start is one of the highlights of the movie. As a criminal, though, he is surly, anti-social and refuses to name or acknowledge the people who hire him during and after the event.

Tough and intimidating as this act is he not inherently evil or disturbed man. His major personality flaw is that is unable to connect with other people and seems to almost be able to blend into a crowd. While a boon possibly in his day-job and side-lines it is problematic in his private life it as it equals non-existence for him in practice. He managed to connect with a mechanic named Shannon (Bryan Cranston) and a neighbour named Irene (Carey Mulligan) for whom he begins to care. Meanwhile, Shannon plans to make Driver a stock-car racer and calls in on an old friend, Bernie Rose, to fund his venture. Rose is a frightening but somewhat affable small-time gangster, played eerily well by comedian Albert Brooks. Eventually a cruel, criminal scam by Nino (Ron Perlemen), Rose's 'business partner', sends them on a collision course with Driver and Irene.

The movie is not really a crime film where plot and action is important, but is really about a man slowly learning to exist. Ryan Gosling, as the unnamed Driver, plays a difficult role where he almost travels through life like an innocent despite reacting to threats with exceptional brutality (the film is quite gory at times). We are never told what made him so emotionally withdrawn, adding only to the character's air of mystery. Stylistically the movie is like a strange, fascinating mixture of German Expressionistic melodrama, a forgettable 1980's Patrick Swayze movie and the works of Andrei Tarkovsky. The results are decidedly mixed; moody, slow and ponderous with a certain sense of theatricality that is uncommon even among art-house films today yet not entirely unwatchable. Although I always admire a movie that wants to be stylistically different this approach annoyed me during the first half. Gosling's role during that time consists mostly of smiling blankly at his friends, unable to say a word. Maybe its because he has almost no personality. But as the movie builds and you get used to the director's stylistic flourishes it becomes clear the director, whether you like his methods or not, knows exactly what he is doing artistically. Gosling's character subtly comes to life and this is where you begin to identify with him, even if he can be scary at times. It is in the latter half of the movie in particularly where the style, plot and characters work at their best and where the movie truly becomes something different.

This is not a film that would please everyone, though. Misleading marketing or the expectations of a more 'normal' movie can anger some. I liked this movie, not just for daring to be different but for succeeding.

8/10