Contributor: Andy Spencer
Written by Hossein Amini
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
“If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in those five minutes and I’m yours, no matter what. I don’t sit in while you’re running it down, I don’t carry a gun. I drive.”
Such are the words of the nameless main character of the film “Drive”, from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn and portrayed by Ryan Gosling. This is a character without any explanation or backstory. He balances two jobs: a Hollywood stuntman and heist wheelman. Both involve driving. And that’s that.
On the surface, “Drive” sounds quite a bit like a typical, run-of-the-mill action film. Car chases, bloody action, hot chicks, and lots of money are common sights in modern films of this type. However, “Drive” manages to rise heads and shoulders above its contemporaries using three things: direction, acting, and style, employing all three with an artfulness that is all too rare these days. Especially in action movies.
The director, Refn, has made quite a few films before this one, most of which involved crime of some type or another. As such, “Drive” is not entirely unfamiliar territory for him. This is a fact that is apparent in every frame of the movie. In no shot is there any space that is not filled with something unimportant or uninteresting. It has been edited down so that there is no dull moment, no scene that is any less than riveting. In every scene, you know exactly what is happening, and you can feel everything. The quiet scenes are filled to the brim with emotion, with all characters remaining reserved yet strangely expressive throughout the whole movie. These scenes in particular seem to have been filed so meticulously that you can see the dozens of takes it must have taken to find just the right angle.
Occupying these sections and others are actors who seem to have been made specifically for their roles in “Drive”. These include the aforementioned Gosling, Carey Mulligan as the tender and beautiful Irene, Albert Brooks as the profane Bernie Rose, and Bryan Cranston (a singularly phenomenal actor from the equally awesome TV series “Breaking Bad”) as the Driver’s employer, Shannon. Every one of them bring their own flavor to their scenes, in a way making them the stars of their screen time, rather than star Gosling. Cranston infuses his scenes with a hint of desperation, as he is a man struggling to get by with his auto-repair shop business. Mulligan is a subdued, beautiful, and caring woman whose love for her son is her main (ahem) driving force in the film. Brooks is a man of overt menace, who makes you shiver even when showing off his nicer side. Gosling has simultaneously the most and least significant role in the film. He reflects the emotions of those around him, but manages to subtly twist them into his own, and conveys more with a single glance and fewer than twenty lines of dialog than most stars manage in entire films. Whenever he is on the screen, you might be focusing on someone else, but the Driver will always be making you wonder what he’ll do next.
The style of the film is ultimately what is the most notable aspect of “Drive”. Colors are comic-book rich, making each object in a shot instantly noticeable. The alternating atmosphere of the film is extremely, and fittingly, jarring, with genuinely shocking violence preceded and followed by quiet, meaningful dialog. Refn does not exclude anything: entire conversations are shown, unedited, complete with the long silences in between lines. Concurrently, the violence is unflinchingly graphic. “Viewers with an aversion to blood and brutality need not apply” is a good enough way to sum that up. However, in another masterstroke, absolutely everything feels like it means something. Some of the film probably does not mean anything. But it all feels important, a fact that will keep you riveted to this visceral, unique, and emotionally rewarding triumph.
Score: 10/10