This movie is exciting. It’s not “Fast Five” exciting. It’s not even “The Fighter” exciting. It’s Scorsese exciting. It’s the public baptism of a new auteur that may, if we’re lucky, threaten Hollywood studios so much that they’ll feel forced to produce better movies.
Director Nicolas Winding Refn got a lot of attention for 2008’s embellished bio-pic “Bronson” (and less so for his follow-up, the Viking epic “Valhalla Rising”). With “The Notebook” darling Ryan Gosling starring in “Drive,” he’s finally created the perfect cocktail for a monster hit.
Given only the name of Driver, Gosling plays a stunt motorist who moonlights as a getaway car driver for criminals willing to pay a commission. It’s only when Driver becomes enamored with his attractive, single-mom neighbor, played by Carey Mulligan, that he’s pulled deeper into the criminal underworld.
Slow and deliberate when it needs to be, grotesque when you’ve been lulled by the beauty of some perfectly composed shots, this movie fails on no level. It’ll give you chills.
