Drive - Review

After being told to check out Drive by a teacher at college, and being lent the DVD (which I will give back on Monday) I have finally got round to watching it, and here is my review, its only short but I’m having a busy weekend.

A Nicolas Winding Refn film based around the life of a Hollywood stunt driver by day, and criminal get away driver by night, Drive shows Ryan Gosling doing what his character does best “Drive”. Although his character is never actually given a name, other than being credited at “Driver” and not much is revealed about his ability behind the wheel of a car, all that is forgotten when watching this film due to the storyline being a much deeper one than I had first anticipated.

The Driver manages to get himself locked up in some serious mobster crime after trying to use his talent to help out the husband of his rather attractive neighbor (Carey Mulligan) after he becomes the target after being released from prison. Everything begins to go awry for the driver after this point and he is forced to turn to his obvious nature of violence to sort through it.

Due to the age rating of the film being an 18, towards the beginning of the film I had suspected scenes to get graphic when the plotline turned to crime, however, I was not actually expecting for Ryan Goslings character to be the one committing most of the violent acts. I think this is because, at the beginning of the film, although he is a crime get away driver, his character is portrayed as some one who takes a back seat on all this crime and who seems to be rather serene. How wrong I was in expecting this.  Which is in fact quite a good thing actually as the change in character half way through makes the film much more interesting; as well as showing just how a person can change when put in the right (well in this case, wrong) situation.

There was a large variety of slow motion scenes, which are rare in dramas such as this one, but I think that they worked very well and helped to highlight certain scenes as well as the gore that is shown in them. My personal favourite gory scene is when you get an up close and personal view to a bullet entering a persons head (I will say no more for those who wish to watch it.)

In a more general case, I thought that the film was directed brilliantly with some beautiful shots capturing the relationships between the characters. My only fault that I can think of with the film would be an element of corniness that is shown as Driver and pretty neighbor drive down the LA river culvert. Admittedly, it is just my own opinion, and general lack of interest in corny elements of films, but this reminded me immensely of the chase sequence in Grease and that is all I could see when watching this part of the film.

It is a definite must see to anyone who doesn't mind being made to feel uneasy by the amount of violence that you are shown. If you enjoy it, The Place Beyond The Pines, Ryan Goslings new release with Bradley Cooper looks set to be Drive on two wheels!

The film also raised the question In my mind- why doesn’t every criminal invest in a fake prosthetic face to wear rather than a ski mask?