Drive

"My hands are a little dirty."

"So are mine."

There has been much hype leading up to the wide release of Drive these past few months. The film received a standing ovation at Cannes, director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Valhalla Rising, the Pusher Trilogy) received best director at the festival, it boasts a ridiculous 93% on RottenTomatoes, and I have seen more than one Facebook status proclaiming Drive as “the best movie ever.” I went in with high expectations, and though the film falls slightly short, it is a great film and I certainly enjoyed it.

Drive is a textbook example of style over substance, and is an even rarer example of that type of film working to tell a compelling story. There is little plot, sparse dialogue, and few characters in Drive, but the way in which the story is told keeps the audience invested in the characters and interested in the outcome. This is not an action-filled car chase movie as the trailers would have you believe, but a slow-burn thriller character study that will drive impatient film goers mad.

I have been a Ryan Gosling fan after watching him knock it out of the park twice in a row in Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl. His performance in Blue Valentine afterwards cemented him in my eyes as one of the best actors in films today. His performance in Drive is good, though the script does not require a significant amount of acting on his part. He carries a strong intensity through his character, and when he speaks, everyone listens.

The main character of Drive is unnamed, but that’s fine, as Ryan Gosling really plays two different characters in this film: a quiet, thoughtful mechanic and stunt driver who also moonlights as a getaway driver (Quiet Ryan), and the unhinged, murderous Ryan, who kills without hesitation (Angry Ryan). His name isn’t important as you don’t learn anything about Ryan in this film, and you never find out what happened to him to make him the way he is. All you need to know is that he is equally a gifted driver and mechanic as he is emotionally unstable.

For the majority of the movie, you watch Quiet Ryan go about his daily life and are offered small glimpses of Angry Ryan, such as when a man recognizes him at a coffee shop from one of his previous jobs. Quiet Ryan works during the day as a mechanic for Shannon (Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston), who is indebted to a pair of mobsters, Bernie (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman). Perlman is always a treat, though I wish both him and Brooks got more screen time and I feel like both characters are somewhat unutilized.

Quiet Ryan meets his new neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan), whose husband is in prison, leaving her alone to take care of their son, Benicio. Quiet Ryan helps her out around the house and begins to care for both Irene and Benicio. When Irene’s husband, Standard, is released from prison, his criminal past puts his family in danger. Quiet Ryan offers to help Standard on a job in exchange for his family’s protection, but things don’t go exactly as planned. Angry Ryan must then find a way to set everything straight.

 Ryan Gosling has described Drive as his “superhero movie,” and this is a perfect description. Quiet Ryan’s leather driving gloves serve as his uniform, and when the gloves come on, Angry Ryan is unleashed and people are going to get hurt. Like the main character himself, the movie relishes in its ability to flip back and forth between total serenity and total destruction in mere seconds (the elevator scene is a perfect example of this). Drive has a handful of scenes that are surprisingly violent, and part of me wonders if it would be more effective if the gore was more subtle and the camera focused more on the characters themselves rather than the knife/fork/foot being used. In any case, it is an artistic choice by the filmmakers, but it makes the film difficult to recommend to everybody.  This is a bit of a shame as the rest of the movie is generally appropriate for most audiences.

Drive’s aesthetic style is definitely winning it points, particularly with the critics. The movie uses slow-motion to great extent and very wisely (you could frame almost any shot from this film on a wall).I definitely dig the 80’s vibe, though it largely disappears after the opening credits. Cliff Martinez’ ambient soundtrack does the job well, and music cues are used sparsely but effectively.

(Begin spoilers)

I was let down, however, by the last ten minutes of Drive, including the ending. First off, the editing during Angry Ryan’s final conversation with Bernie is quite frankly terrible (to refresh, it splices back and forth between their conversation inside the restaurant and the events that happen afterwards outside the restaurant). There is a reason that more movies do not do this: it is confusing, hard to follow, distracting, and it takes away any intensity that either scene is trying to create. You also spend half the scene trying to figure out what’s going on. As a mental exercise, when you watch Drive, think about how much more effective each of the two scenes would be on their own.

Another movie off the top of my head that also does this is The Matrix Reloaded about three quarters of the way through the film. When Morpheus is explaining the plan to break into the building that houses the Architect, it cuts away to the characters actually carrying out the tasks. It is extremely confusing and completely pointless. I recognize this is nitpicking on a three minute scene, but the entire film builds up to this scene and it completely falls flat. For a movie that is so focused on its editing style, this stood out to me as amateurish and ill advised.

I also have some issues with the final stabbing scene with Bernie and the ending itself. In the stabbing scene, it can be safely assumed that Angry Ryan knows full well that Bernie is going to try and kill him during their meeting. From how the scene plays out, I think it can also be assumed that Ryan’s plan is to 1) kill Bernie, and 2) leave the money. With these assumptions, why on earth would Ryan then leave his back to Bernie, allowing himself to get stabbed and risk his life if his plan was to kill Bernie anyway? Angry Ryan kills without hesitation in every other scene in the movie. Why not just take Bernie outside, kill him and leave the money? Someone pointed out to me that maybe Ryan thought Bernie wouldn’t try and kill him if he gave up the money. I don’t buy this, as Ryan saw that Bernie had killed Shannon in a previous scene and Bernie also has motivation to kill Ryan as he confessed to drowning his partner, Nino. I found the way that Angry Ryan acted in this scene was jarringly inconsistent with his character in other situations throughout the movie.

Afterwards, Angry Ryan just takes off out of town. I assume this is because Bernie tells him he is going to spend the rest of the life looking over his shoulder. But why? The money belonged to the mob, but they don’t know anything about Ryan or the fact that he has it. Everyone who knows about the money is dead, why leave it? He doesn’t leave it because it’s the right thing to do, he actually suggests keeping and running away with Irene and Benicio it in a previous scene. I don’t understand why he decides to leave or why he leaves the money. It’s not what he wants to do, and I don’t see any obstacles to him getting what he wants (to stay with Irene and Benicio and keep the money).

(End spoilers).

Despite my nagging issues with the final ten minutes of the film, Drive is a great film, and one I definitely recommend if you can stomach the violence. It is a well-made film through and through, and is worth watching for the aesthetics alone. Ryan Gosling continues along his path to becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood (three movies this year alone), and this film will likely be remembered as one of his best.