I'm having trouble figuring out how to start this review. Let's do this. Pretend you're in your car. Now slow down..stop...get out and walk...slower....sloooowwwer. This is the pace of this Ryan Gosling vehicle(sorry) that tells the tale of a man known only as Driver, a sometime stunt performer, sometime criminal wheelman. The cast is rounded out by Brian Cranston as Shannon the owner of the garage where Driver works. He wants to steer(sorry) Driver into a NASCAR career. Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman play a couple of low level LA crime bosses from whom Shannon borrows seed money for a race car. Driver becomes involved with a comely neighbor, Irene (played very neatly by Carey Mulligan), And attempts to use his skills to get her family out of a bind. A pretty promising setup, right? Yeah, about that.
Drive is not a bad movie per se. But if you're going to name a movie Drive, If the shot above is the poster, especially in the MTV, Quick Cut, fast and furious climate that is today's pop culture environment, it's imperative that your movie has some...well...DRIVE, frankly. If your main character is named DRIVER, then perhaps he shouldn't spend 1/3 of the movie silently sullenly sitting at a table. That's not an exaggeration. The main character spends more time at tables or staring out windows than committing any other act.
It's frustrating; I believe I know what director Nicholas Winding Refn was going for. Drive wants to be a moody, Michael Mann-esque "Underbelly of L.A." sort of story; something akin to Training Day or Havoc. Unfortunately, that requires a tricky balancing act that Refn just doesn't pull off. It's a challenge, pacing it just so you maintain that mood without downshifting(sorry) to an absolute crawl.
Ryan Gosling is a good actor. You can tell he's working hard to give viewers a vested interest in Driver. He is partially successful in that he made me feel a sense of pity for him. With zero exposition however, that pity is short lived. I ended up saying "Why?" How does someone become that damned disenchanted and disconnected? It takes a very good actor to maintain a character's charisma without a back story. Ryan will most likely accomplish this at some point but did not here. This might also be due to some strange directorial/cinematographic choices. All of the (relatively few) action sequences in the film have some strange mitigating factor that once again leave the viewer with a question he shouldn't have to ask. The aftermath of one such scene features Driver, having just dispatched a couple of assassins, receding out of a doorway and out of frame, almost in slow motion, for no reason, crazed bloody face retreating out of the shot. Next, the screen goes black. Why? Another scene features perhaps the most ridiculously over the top stomp out of a bad guy I've ever seen in any film. It's as if the director tried to concentrate all of the action meant to be spread throughout the film into twenty seconds. Strangely enough, this twenty seconds is preceded by the tenderest of kisses between Driver and Irene.
Stepping away from all of this, the supporting cast was the saving grace for this movie. When It comes to playing an old, weathered bad-ass, Ron Perlman is right up there with Kris Kristofferson and Michael Ironside. Albert Brooks is compelling and believeable as Bernie, a small time old school hood obsessed with protecting his tiny empire because it's all he has. In some places he garners more sympathy for his plight than Driver does. Brian Cranston is next level. His portrayal of the chronically down-on-his-luck Shannon with dreams of making it to the other side of the hill is Drives realest, rawest performance. The bitter coctail of hope laced with desperation informs his every word and motion,*SPOILER AHEAD* and the scene where Bernie puts Shannon out of his misery is shocking in that it manages to be simultaneously that sublime and that brutal and cold. This scene is the unfortunate exception to the rule of questionable Overall pacing though.
When I'm not hating on things, I play bass. One of the things you learn playing that instrument is that the notes you don't play, the SILENCE space is sometimes more important than the ones you do play. This movie is an example of that concept gone wrong. It doesn't groove because in too many places there is too much space between the notes.
Perhaps the problem wasn't with the Movie, but with the marketing of Drive. Admittledly, it did very well on the festival circuit, even earning the best director award at Cannes. The issue is this movie was pushed as something for the gearheads and actionophiles, as if it were a cross between The Transporter and Heat. Looked at through to prism of a melancholy thriller, The film serves as a passable showcase for Ryan Gosling and is a decent enough study in tone and mood. Even from this perspective though, it suffers from very strange pacing. The best comparison is Michael Mann's Collateral. It followed a similar formula and trajectory as drive, but the transitions in Collateral are handled much better, from longing silent glances to thoughtful dialogue to poetic shots of L.A. nightscape that slowly but consistently ramp up to the action sequences. The balance of the chemicals in the formula is much better. Watching Ryan Goslings syrupy tone-poem had me wanting to scream SHUT UP AND DRIVE, ALREADY!!!
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