Review: Drive

Simple truth: this movie isn’t for everyone. Drive might sell itself as an action picture, but in reality it’s a dark, intensely dramatic thriller that moves oh so slowly towards its violent, action packed conclusion. It’s not for the faint of heart. I liked it a lot.

Ryan Gosling stars as Driver – his character never reveals his name – who divides his days between stunt driving for the movies and working in an auto repair shop. He’s really good with cars. Nights, he contracts himself out as a getaway driver, giving his criminal clients very specific parameters: If I drive for you…I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. One minute before, one minute after….you’re on your own.

It’s not clear why Driver takes on this shadowy underworld work, when he has two daytime jobs and a very simple lifestyle. But he smolders – Ryan Gosling is good at smoldering – so it seems like there’s darkness to him, something dangerous. Driver isn’t much for sharing – this film is very sparing with dialogue, the screenplay must be unusually short – and even as he gets to know his charming neighbor (Carrie Mulligan, in an excellently nuanced performance) and her appealing son, there really isn’t much talking. They seem to understand each other instinctively, and long silences between them are pretty much the norm. It’s all very old fashioned, deliberately paced, noirish, with Irene and Driver trying to carve out a connection, a little bit of hope in the middle of the darkness.

But it can’t last; Irene’s husband Standard gets sprung from jail early, and he comes home with villains on his trail, demanding he do a job for them. Concerned for Irene, Driver gets involved, offering Standard’s criminal colleagues his usual deal – I give you a five-minute window – but this time things don’t go according to plan.

The last half hour of this film is startlingly violent. My companions were hiding their eyes. But it’s all very well done, and it’s not done for fun; as bad as the mayhem gets, the violence serves the story, not the other way around. And Driver doesn’t seek out trouble, he just tries to protect his loved ones from it.

Also starring Albert Brooks as a quietly terrifying bad guy, and Bryan Cranston as Driver’s unreliable friend and agent. Playing everywhere, had an okay opening weekend. B