“Drive” is one of the best films of the year. It’s unlike anything else in theaters right now — and that’s both a blessing and a curse. “Drive” is an exceedingly exciting film, and not just because it centers on a man who’s a Hollywood stunt driver by day, criminal wheelman by night. It’s an intriguing and strangely moving mix of movie history. Critics and even the director himself have declared that 1968’s “Bullitt” is the key forebearer. But the movie’s electric-pink title credits suggest a steamy ’80s flick, and its synthesizer-laden soundtrack suggests ’80s genre films like “Blade Runner.” Its deliberate pace points to the typical European art film, while its over-the-top gangsters seem taken straight out of American classics.
Though it wears its influences on its sleeve, “Drive” isn’t derivative. The film is a breath of fresh air, a carefully made, ultraviolent love story that heralds in a new talent.
| On screen |
| ‘Drive’ |
| 4 out of 4 stars |
| Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston |
| Director: Nicolas Winding Refn |
| Rated: R for strong brutal bloody violence, language and some nudity |
| Running time: 100 minutes |
Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn won the best-director award at Cannes for “Drive;” he was chosen to make the film by its star, Ryan Gosling. It’s an inspired teaming. For the first half of the film, Gosling is almost mute, except for the phone call he makes as the film starts, explaining his rules for conducting a heist. When his beautiful, vulnerable neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) asks him what he does, he responds with just two words: “I drive.”
That’s true as far as it goes. But he also, because her car breaks down and she needs a ride, falls in love with Irene and her young child. They never consummate the romance: Irene’s husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), returns from prison just as it looks like they’re about to. Standard, of course, is suspicious of this man who’s proved so helpful to his wife; he hasn’t seen the quiet driver (he’s never named) sitting, smiling, looking his happiest just watching television with the kid.
It turns out to be a grand love. The driver puts his life on the line to secure those of Irene and her child without even getting so much as a kiss. Standard has to pull a heist to pay the protection money he owes from his time in the big house, and the driver volunteers his services. It goes terribly wrong, of course; this wouldn’t be so neo-noirish otherwise.
But the plot doesn’t matter so much. “Drive” proves you can make a gripping piece of art almost solely through the use of atmosphere. Gosling understands this and carries the film and its all-important tone with few words, but much intensity.
