As I sit here listening to Drive‘s excellent soundtrack, I’m unable to help my mixed feelings when I think about the film itself. I had avoided reviews (which, on reflection, may have been a bad thing) but the buzz surrounding Drive has been difficult to miss over recent days. More than one critic has called it his film of the year. With that kind of enthusiastic reaction, I was keen to see it for myself at the earliest opportunity and overlook my immunity to the Ryan Gosling Factor.
Put simply (and the plot is very simple), the film portrays a few weeks in the life of the Driver (Gosling) – a movie stunt driver who earns a little extra by being a mechanic and a lot extra by being a get away driver for the criminals of Los Angeles. He is inscrutable, monosyllabic at best, but strangely ostentatious with his silver scorpion jacket, his leather driving gloves and a toothpick. He doesn’t carry a gun. When he meets his neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), he falls for her smile and gentle ways with her son, putting himself into the position of father while Irene’s husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) serves his time in prison. But when Standard is released, the Driver feels he has no option but to protect Irene and her son by helping Standard to do that one last job. It goes horrendously wrong and from that moment onwards there is no stopping the ride.
The instant that Drive began, it had me. The opening sequence, with its sensational techno beats, bright Los Angeles lights and glaring pink opening credits, triumphantly introduces us to the skill of the Driver, avoiding police helicopters and cars through his complete knowledge of LA’s roads and secrets. Ryan Gosling here is the epitome of cool, thanks in no small part to the fantastic eye and vision of the director Nicholas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising), who captures both the movement and stillness of the Driver. Throughout the film, there are clever glances at characters through mirrors, portraits, windows. We are most definitely on the outside. The Driver is unfathomable. Only gradually do we come to know him and perhaps it should not be a surprise that, to me at least, he is a monster.
The first half of the film is a treat to the eyes and ears. In addition, Carey Mulligan’s sweetness makes even the Driver smile and it’s hard to resist her or her son. The driving sequences are imaginatively mesmerising to watch and we see glimpses of a possible bright future, at work and at play. But once the robbery with Standard goes so wrong there is no turning back. The Driver goes from not carrying a gun on jobs to becoming an avenging angel of death. He doesn’t just kill people, he stamps and hammers the life out of them. We’re not spared the brutality and I’m not ashamed to admit that there were several times when I not only couldn’t look, I couldn’t even stay in my seat! I couldn’t even deal with the sound of the violence. It is relentless and the end is relentless and I was longing for that end.
I am not going to forget Drive in a hurry. There were moments of genius in its direction and acting, complemented by a soundtrack that I will enjoy for a long time to come. The visualisation of Los Angeles, the cameo of Christina Hendricks, the roles of Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks (brushing over Ron Perlman…) are excellent. I’m also very pleased to see Carey Mulligan in such a well-received film, having followed her career from its beginning. Personally, and I realise that I am more squeamish than most, I wished that the violence had been left more to the imagination. I didn’t need to be spattered with brain and gore to appreciate that the bad guys were very bad and that the Driver was on a mission.
But, if the intention was to make me understand that the Driver is a monster, then it made the point extremely effectively. However, it was at the cost of my enjoyment of a film, which otherwise I would have found extraordinary and would have made every effort to see again.
On a lighter note, back to the soundtrack. Here is a sampler (via VH1). The titles of the tracks and some of the images are slightly spoilery. I’m not going to post the trailer because it gives away the entire plot.
I felt the same way about the violence. I was mesmerized by the tense silence and methodical pacing, and then BLAM! It would have been just as effective a contrast without the brain bits and sound of skulls crushing. Funny that I even feel that way, as I can watch Pulp Fiction violence without blanching one bit.
I had the exact opposite reaction to the synth music & Eighties titling. It was a distraction that left a question mark floating above my head. But the film was totally engrossing and the performances compelling. Eventually my stomach will settle & I’ll have to see it again.
Thanks for commenting, Tankergirl! This film is fascinating for the way we have different reactions to it. I’m glad it’s not just me who found the violence extreme – I thought I might well be! It certainly is engrossing. I would love to see parts of it again but I couldn’t stomach the second half.
I feel a little bit guilty saying that Drive needed more driving. When the action comes it is tense and artfully done without shying away from the extreme violence, but that all starts to go away as soon as the characters start talking, or sighing and looking at each other. Nice review.
Thanks! I know what you mean about the driving – I thought the opening sequence was superb. I’d have liked more of that.
Very good review, Kate. You made me want to see this movie. I hope I will be able to stand so much violence.
Thanks Mermon! I hope you can go and see it. I’d love to hear what you think
I don’t think he’s a monster. Unklerupert called him a guardian angel, and I think that’s fair in a way. It’s certainly the way he would like to view himself. Everything he does is for them. He wants to be a hero. He wants the girl. But he’s doomed to fail from the start.
I think of the Driver as a guy who has set himself up in a very specific way, and created a role for himself in which he is absolutely in control. The car, the costume (which he never takes off, even when it’s caked in blood, don’t forget), the speech, everything about him is designed, considered, set in stone. It’s a self-image with Aspergers-like focus. Once he’s forced out from behind the wheel, once he stops being in control, then you see a different side.
He’s trying to carve out a new role without the slightest clue of what to do. He’s decided that he can’t be the Driver any more. He has to be the tough guy, the avenger. But he doesn’t have a clue how to do it. Who in their right mind would threaten a thug with a bullet and a hammer? You can see the blind panic in his eyes as he does it. Listen to the tremor in his voice when he makes the final call to Albert Brooks. He’s making it up as he goes along, and it’s falling apart in front of him. The foolish chance he thinks he’s got with Carey Mulligan vanishes in the space of a lift ride, the cool guy veneer has collapsed. He’s thrashing around trying to make things right and failing dismally.
That’s why the violence is so shocking. It gave me a jolt, and I’m a gorehound. You simply don’t see it coming out of this guy. I don’t think it’s any more extreme or gratuitous than the slashed throat and bullet hit in Tinker Tailor. It’s powerful because it’s a sign of the Driver’s world crumbling away. If anything, the violence is a signifier of character. Albert Brooks is just an urbane thug until he stabs the thug in the pizzeria. All of a sudden you see him in a completely different light. In an instant he’s much, much more of a threat, and you need to see the violence to get that.
Phew. Blimey. That clearly needed to come out. Apologies for rambling – I guess I was so concerned with avoiding spoilers on my own review that I didn’t get the chance to think through why I found it so potent and compelling. It’s a film that will haunt me for a while, I think.
Fab comment, Rob! Hope you feel better for getting that out of your system
*spoilers*
I read Unklerupert’s comment late last night and it preyed on my mind. But the more I think about it I know I can never see the Driver as anything but a monster and, strangely, for all of the reasons that you say he’s not. Just because he thinks he’s a guardian angel – and I have no doubt that’s just how he sees himself (he’s certainly not reacting in a normal, human way) – that doesn’t mean he is. When he stamps that guy’s head to pulp in the lift and Carey looks at him as the lift door closes… that is absolutely the way that I felt about him. This is a monster. He has completely disassociated himself from any kind of morality. He is capable of the utmost sadism and cruelty. I know that none of the men he despatches are angels of light but even so to stamp on someone’s head like that, to hammer their hands. I can’t even describe the scene in the flat because I had to pop out for that one! He is an inscrutable, desensitised killer who’s fooled himself into thinking he’s a clinical get away driver because he doesn’t carry a gun. Obviously he has no need of a gun – his feet and hands are more than adequate.
He never takes off his jacket, despite the blood. It’s almost like he can’t see it. The scorpion on his back is there for a reason.
I think he knows well how to be the killer and the avenger. I don’t see those thought processes, the doubt. I don’t see him thrashing about. I see him set on a monster’s course.
I found the violence way more shocking than in the chilly Tinker Tailor. The shootings outside the pawn shop and in the flat are absolutely horrifying and so flippin’ gory! I know I’m the opposite of a gorehound and so when those bullets were fired outside the paw3n shop, for every one, I jolted in my seat. They really shocked me. Tinker Tailor was tidy in its killing.
Albert Brooks’ character is another monster – LA is full of them here! I’ve been out off pizzerias…
I’ll be thinking about this for a while too. My main problem as a squeamish person who’s over sensitive to this kind of violence is that I wished there had been more of the style of the first half in the second. I was supposed to go out for a meal after the screening yesterday but I literally couldn’t stomach it.
We have to mull this one over over a pint! Thanks Rob
Great point on the loss of control, Rob. Anyone else notice the increase in light radiance just as he switches from affection to violence (in the lift for example) and a couple of other times I think as well, that also informed my opinion on him being Angelic.
Hello Unklerupert
I do agree that the director shows the Driver as an agent of vengeance but, for me, the man with the scorpion on his back is nothing more than a cold blooded monster who had a go at being human for a while and failed.
Drive reminded me of an American western. I’ve enjoyed your review and it pretty much agrees with my own feelings. I felt the pacing was off, and it seemed contrived on a certain level. Very broody and atmospheric. Also a lot of posing. There wasn’t a lot going on in the Driver’s eyes. He was supposed to be watchful and instead his face/expression was just flat. I think the director was trying to convey menace. I could sense that an explosion wasn’t far off. But I grew impatient at certain points even tho when the action sequences began they were very harrowing at times. I never thought of Driver as a guardian angel, but I do feel like he was an avenger. He was into retribution and his own version of justice. For me Brian Cranston and Albert Brooks were the highlights of the movie altho I do like Carrie Mulligan so much.
Thanks for commenting, American Cousin
There was very little in those eyes. I did actually like the posing and the stylised portrayal of LA and this man with the scorpion on his back. For me, I preferred the scenes before the violence began but yes he did have his own sense of justice, in keeping with this dark world, and it scared the life out of me.
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