Review: Drive

Drive, once boiled down to its basic components, is a very strong tale of crime and possible redemption in the dirty underbelly of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, what could and should be a film buoyed by multiple strong performances quickly becomes a stylstic, muddled mess on screen.

Drive is the story of... well, a man named Driver (Ryan Gosling). He is never given a real name during the film, but is nicknamed "Kid" by his boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Driver works for Shannon as a film stuntman during the day and a getaway driver for hire by night. Driver is an emotionless wreck of a human being, with driving being the only thing he's good at (hey, the film ain't subtle). It seems the only time he feels anything is when he is behind the wheel of a car—that is, until he meets neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son. Then her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison. Despite his attempts to go straight, he has acquaintances from his old life who are set on bringing him back into the fold. Soon, all hell breaks loose.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn has had an interesting career. In the short time since he first stepped behind the camera, he has given us the great Pusher trilogy, the overrated Bronson (2008) , and the abysmal Valhalla Rising (2009). While this film is better than Valhalla by leaps and bounds, Refn still seems to be struggling to recapture the magic he had when making the Pusher movies.

It may be buried beneath extraneous homages to gritty '80s films like William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A., but there is a very solid script here. Hossein Amini has crafted a tale (based on James Sallis' book of the same name) that, while spare when it comes to dialogue, crackles on the screen. You buy relationships that grow over a few well spoken sentences, free of the mindless blather most scripts use to pad time.

When Refn isn't more concerned about the amount of neon being flashed across windshields, he manages to produce some excellent performances from the talent on display. Cranston is finally given a role worthy of the talent he has shown on AMC's Breaking Bad and if he'd been surrounded by lesser actors he would have easily stolen the film. Fortunately he shared the majority of his scenes with Albert Brooks, who played against type as a local mob boss. I can easily say this is Brooks' best film role since 1987's Broadcast News. If there is any justice in the world his performance here will be remembered come awards nominations time.

There are excellent performances here given by gifted actors. There is a sharp script on a well-worn subject. Unfortunately, these are given to us by a director that decided to bury them under every bell and whistle he could think of. Hopefully by the time Refn makes his next film he will realize that audiences care about characters, not just facades.

Image © 2011 - FilmDistrict.

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