Drive (2011)
Certified: 18
Duration: 100 minutes
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Russ Tamblyn
KRS release

Labelled as a thinking man’s Fast and Furious, Drive is more than an oversimplified tag.

Exuding the coolness of a Mickey Spillane novel and real characters that live and breathe, the Drive title is more about internal angst and existentialism; absurd popcorn entertainment is far removed from this film’s realm. The drive scenes themselves are fuel-amped and adrenaline-charged, yet realistic; there’s none of that racing around with a room-sized bank vault towed behind two cars.

Ryan Gosling plays a man simply known as The Driver. He works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston) in an auto garage who also provides him with two other kinds of jobs – he works as both a Hollywood stunt driver and as a getaway car driver in one-off heists. Banking on The Driver’s success, Shannon asks criminal boss Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) for a loan for a race car to be piloted by The Driver. Nino (Ron Perlman), Bernie’s partner, is not too happy about this.

The Driver is attracted to his neighbour Irene (Care Mulligan) who works as a waitress, has a young son Benicio (Kaden Leos) and whose husband Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac) is in prison. The two fall more and more in love with each other. When Standard gets out of jail things however become a tad more complicated. Standard needs to pay up some “debts” and should he not be in a position to pay up, Irene and Benicio will end up badly. Standard thus teams up with Blanche (Christina Hendricks) to pull a heist on a pawn shop to solve his money problems.

The Driver decides to help Standard out, yet things spiral downward when the heist goes badly.

This film benefits from the tight reins exhibited by Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn, who here delivers a movie that is both hard and sweet at the same time. He coats the film with a 1970s B-movie feel, references other movies like crazy as he goes into Tarantino mode and delivers a film that is driven to an extreme by the inertia of violence that is at its core. The violence is not a continuous factor, but rather, comes in short bursts that will really jolt both the audience and the story. This is a film reminiscent of Michael Mann’s early films before he fell in love with hand-held camera. The film is both contemporary and retro in the way it takes on the noir genre.

Ryan Gosling really fits in well as the toothpick-donning Driver. His character is in-keeping with the Clint Eastwood style of The Man With No Name or Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samourai. He does not need to talk a lot, he just acts; and Mr Gosling fits in perfectly here. This is almost a self-conscious creation of a contemporary mythological icon. Focus is directed at every twitch of the eye, flexing of muscles and shifting of gear rod, as each move is amplified to the nth power. In short, a Steve McQueen from the time of Bullitt re-presented for a new generation.

Carey Mulligan fills in her role well as the urban lady in distress while Albert Brooks is a malicious villain that screams malevolence.

The overall setting of the film has been played countless times in the genre but this is a different treatment altogether, making this film fresh and a must-see for all those who want their drama served intense and spicy. This film is both reflective and anger-fuelled, calm and yet intense. My overall verdict? This is one flick that needs to be placed under the “cool” category.