FILM: DRIVE – IRISH PRIMATE
Review By James Mason
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman and Oscar Isaac.
Synopsis: A Hollywood stunt driver moonlights as a getaway man. Taking a job to help someone inevitably goes awry and the wheelman finds himself wanted dead by various lethal parties.
Review: In the first few moments of Drive you get the feeling that you are seeing something timeless and special. A few quick strokes of storytelling help to build up the tone and character of the film but, the main focus here is the character of the “driver”. As a “wheelman” he has a simple rule that you can count on him to be there for a set amount of time and after that has eclipsed he’s gone. Seeing Ryan Gosling set the benchmark of a brooding loner who radiates a quiet menace is truly a mesmerising performance.
In fact, the entire cast are exceptional in the film. There are a few standouts of course; Bryan Cranston yet again shows why he keeps winning Emmy awards with his portrayal of a down on his luck mechanic. Carey Mulligan does a fine job and like Gosling knows how to portray so much while saying so little. The real surprise here was Albert Brooks as a gangster who is affable but so frightening in his ruthlessness that I would not be shocked to see him nab a few supporting actor awards. Oscar Isaac as a newly released ex-con shows skill in developing a character that clearly shows why he was in jail but also his desire to do the right thing.
From the first frame onwards the music of Drive kept making me think that I was watching a Michael Mann film. It just screams Thief with a Miami Vice atmosphere. It may sound corny or cheesy but it adds so much atmosphere to the film and fills the lengthy silences of Gosling who when he does go into action does so with a deliberate ferociousness. The camerawork colours LA in a softness that belies the cold dead heart of the city’s underworld.
Some people may think that there’s going to be some amazing car chases in a film about a wheelman being chased but they’d be wrong. What they’ll get is one of the most atmospheric and engrossing films of the year. Drive is the film that will make a bona fide star out of Ryan Gosling and have Nicolas Winding Refn as the most sought after director in the town that he paints such a bleak and twisted picture of. This is a film that wasn’t running on empty and roars forward.
